Keep Me Close
by xxIndigo
Summary: When Sasuke mysteriously vanishes during his two-year quest for redemption, Konoha launches a rescue mission to bring him back. / SasuSaku, Post-Canon
1. Tidal

**Chapter 1: Tidal**

* * *

The watercolor sky shifted from a husky coral overhead to deep violet along the horizon. Intermittent clouds drifted across the expanse, dyed yellow by the setting sun to the west, while stars winked on one by one, hesitant at first. Their reflections shimmered in the sea below, waves stirred restless by an offshore breeze. Even the tide, throwing itself against the sea cliffs in tune, appeared calmed by the glowing evening. The steady rush of ocean on rock was the only sound, spare the soft approach of footsteps picking their way through lengthening shadows above.

A gull cried suddenly overhead, and a raven-haired shinobi stepped out from behind the line of trees and tracked its movements as it wheeled it out of sight. His obsidian gaze fell back to the ocean, and a frown grew across the hard set of his jaw as he surveyed what lay before him. Years had passed since he had last seen the ocean, and the salt in his nose and the tide in his ears swept up memories, long forgotten. A bridge builder and ice crystals, and the weight of a teammate against his chest. He shook off the thought and pulled a hand through his hair.

Sasuke's eyes dropped as he pulled a scroll from his pocket and unfurled it across the rock at his feet. He yanked open a pen with his teeth and scribbled a note. He scowled at the mess of it—writing was exceedingly difficult with one hand—and made an attempt at smoothing a few lines. He paused, rereading it as the ink gleamed up at him. A slight depression formed between his brows.

 _2/6: Arriving in Kyreen midday tomorrow. Questioning harbor master._

Sasuke whistled through his teeth as he signed the note and rose from a crouch, rolling the scroll as his hawk circled. It landed evenly on his shoulder, ruffling its feathers and nuzzling against his cheek. He pushed the creature away from his face and knotted the parchment to its leg. After a moment, the bird took off toward Konoha and the approaching darkness. Sasuke released a sigh from deep within his chest and set on his path again, the wind swirling around his cloak beginning to cool.

He allowed his thoughts to drift to his most recent time in Konoha. His old teacher—who Sasuke still couldn't quite believe had run the country for as long as he had—pulled him aside for his bi-yearly chastising, during which Kakashi had been adamant about consistent check-ins. If possible, daily letters with mission updates and general whereabouts. Sasuke refused at first, but after reading the mission report the fifth hokage fanned in his face, he lamented. A spree of ninja had disappeared from fringe territories, and the council was growing anxious over any "key assets" still out in the field. Kakashi also made a point of wiping the dust off of a certain team photograph on his desk, and glancing pointedly from photo to student.

" _I'm not particularly worried about your wellbeing, Sasuke, but we have to set an example here…" Kakashi had explained tiredly. "You can die out there if you want, but at least let me know in advance."_

Sasuke's expressions tightened as he set off along the coast. It was only later, after he'd overheard a conversation between Shikamaru and Naruto on his way out of town, that he realized that the village was more worried about his kekkei genkai falling into the wrong hands than they were for his safety. He smirked at the idea. As if he could be beaten in combat, let alone _lose_ to someone who could then _steal his eyes._

Ridiculous.

What Sasuke would do, despite whatever idiocies the council spewed, was to find and remove whoever was abducting Leaf shinobi along the remote coast of the Mist. The town of Kyreen, only a few short miles north, would be his first stop. He had a few contacts to check in with, a few other to question, and hadn't allotted more than a few days to sort through the mess. It was a standard C-ranked mission, something fit for a chunnin – or even Team 7, at their formation – but since Sasuke was already in the region, he volunteered to get it done on his own.

Sasuke settled into a brisk pace. He wanted to get a few more miles in before settling in for the night. His mind wandered.

After all this, he would return to Konoha. A pit twisted in his stomach at the thought. That was something his body had decided on, without ever really consulting him. He was bone tired, his chakra reserves stuck well below half, and he needed more time to rest than his travelling schedule permitted. After that, he needed to train—the constant movement had taken a toll on his physical strength, and he disliked the leanness that stared him back in the mirror.

He also wanted to plan out the next phase of his travels, and for that he needed maps, intel and supplies. A quiet, unexpected smirk lifted his face in the dark.

Sasuke shouldered his pack, and continued walking through the dark for some time. When he grew tired, he shielded his chakra, walked into the forest some ways and pulled out his bedroll beneath an old oak tree. In a moment, he fell asleep beneath his blanket.

* * *

Sakura rocked back and forth on the porch of her apartment, wrapped in a down comforter. She tugged it against her neck, burying herself further within the warmth as Ino appeared at her side. Together they gazed out over the village, sipping on mugs of herbal tea. The lights twinkled, and the bubble of villagers leaving their various places of work began to hush.

"This is way less fun with tea. Do you have a bottle of wine open?" Ino asked finally, plopping her mug down and standing up from her seat with a yawn. She cracked her back to one side then other, before turning inside.

"No, but there should be a few unopened on the counter. Beers in the fridge too," answered Sakura. Ino disappeared inside. "You want one?" she called out. Sakura glanced over her shoulder and shook her head. Ino grinned sheepishly as she made her way back and curled up in her seat again, overfilled glass of red in hand.

"So, what's got you so down?" she asked, taking a deep sip of the red before eyeing her strawberry-haired friend. Sakura was never one to decline wine, especially when it was just the two of them, and the switch to tea hadn't gone unnoticed.

"I don't know," she said after some time, sipping her tea. Then, after another pregnant pause: "It's just, the holidays are hard sometimes. The hospital has been so quiet lately, and everyone splits off with their families after. My very empty apartment hits home a little harder than usual, you know? It's just me and the cat. And he's not even my cat."

As if in answer to his mention, an orange calico slunk out from the apartment onto the porch. It plopped between them, release a noise that was a cross between a meow and a belch, and hopped up onto the railing. The cat didn't really belong to anyone – it had followed Sasuke to her flat one day and never left. Now it required feeding and near constant attention.

"You're not totally alone," said Ino. "You've got me! And _he_ might not be here right now, but he's yours."

"Don't be ridiculous. He's been here a grand total of twelve days over the past ten years. And five of those days were in prison…" muttered Sakura. "And besides, he is absolutely not mine. Not anyone's. Sometimes, I don't even think he'd notice if I disappeared. He's the worst sometimes."

"But, also, the best."

"…Yeah," she hummed.

Sakura ran her finger along the rim of her mug absently, the taste of ginger on her lips. Ginger tea was his favorite, bizarrely enough. A calming tea, for the most tumultuous person she knew. Fitting, in his own ironic way. She closed her eyes, biting her lip hard.

She had never really _known_ Sasuke, for all of those years she spent on his team, and then searching for him when he left. She thought she did, but she didn't really. Maybe there wasn't much to know, apart from the all-consuming drive toward revenge, and now that he'd had time to grow, there was a lot to him. All of these little facets and interests and hobbies that seemed odd when connected to someone of his prowess, but formed a part of him all the same.

"Sakura?" Ino murmured.

"Yeah?"

"It'll be okay. He'll be home soon," she said, setting her wine down to wrap her arms around her friend's shoulders with an affectionate squeeze.

"Love you, Ino. Thanks," said Sakura, drawing her friend into the warmth of ehr blanket. Ino nodded, and threw up her arms in a big yawn. After a brief moment of quietness, the two kunoichi gathered up their blankets and retreated indoors. The cat followed in behind them as a light snow wandered down from the sky.

* * *

Sasuke surveyed the town of Kyreen bustling about from a safe distance, assessing the layout before making his final approach. It was mid-morning, and the village looked nearly the same as every other town he'd passed along the coast. The collection of buildings nestled against an inlet with a single dock, and a disheveled collection of dinghy's bobbed just offshore. There were more buildings in Kyreen than the last town he'd passed through, but nothing more worth noting.

From his vantage in a tree, he counted ten residential homes as well as several shops clustered around an open market. A low fence circled the town, with a gated entrance from the main road. The ebb of civilian daily life flowed predictably – fisherman went out on their boats, came back with their catch, and the wives exchanged it in the town square for grains and baked goods and whatever else there was to buy. The smell of smoked fish filled the air. A few dogs lounged about in the sun, and children chased each other along the water's edge.

Sasuke picked out the harbor master's house without too much difficulty—it was the largest of the residential buildings and was the only one with a fresh coat of paint. It shone brilliantly among the salt-stained counterparts. A man whom Sasuke suspected to be the harbor master was just inside, his chakra signature seated at a table in the main room.

A few weeks ago, this same man had sent an urgent letter to Konoha, begging for aid. Of the twelve shinobi that had gone missing, four had been stationed in or around Kyreen, and one of those three was the master's own son.

Sasuke dropped from his perch to the ground, gathered his cloak around him, and made his way toward the town. Although snow had not yet fallen, the bite of winter lurked in the air, and the civilians he passed as he entered town were bundled in seal furs. He approached one of the market stalls he'd picked out from afar, run by an elderly woman selling rice balls. She perked up when he stepped forward.

"Aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" she gushed, pulling back her stall's curtain so that he could get a good look at what she had made for that day. Fish, crab, chicken, with various spices for each rice ball. He pointed out a few and she pulled them from the assortment, wrapping each in a fabric napkin. She handed them to him delicately, and he passed her a few bills.

"I've got a chair over here, if you'd like to sit," she offered as she plopped herself into one of two chairs beside her stand. He joined her, nibbling on one of the rice balls. It was surprisingly rich.

"Thank you," he muttered. She nodded and laced her fingers together, looking at him up and down with curiosity. She was a short woman, with dark leathered skin and long fingers. Her hair was wild and gray, pulled back in a bun, stuck with beads and braids and at least one feather.

"What brings you to town?" she asked. "We don't get many handsome young men passing through these parts."

When Sasuke blanched, she went on: "Oh, wipe that expression off your face! Just making conversation. Finish your food, child."

He did as he was told, and turned to watch the market bustle about them as he ate. He liked this old woman, as old and grizzled and forthcoming as she was.

"Tell me about the harbor master," he said after a time of silence, turning back toward the woman. She blinked, then leaned back in her chair.

"His name is Enko. Good man, he is," she answered slowly. "He treats the whole town like family. Every one of us. He's a good man."

"Go on," said Sasuke. The hesitation in her voice had spoken volumes.

"Well, his son went missing a few weeks ago. He was a kid, just out of the academy. He was back visiting his family, and went into the woods to pick some herbs with his mum. They never came back – the wife was cold when they found her, and the son had just vanished." As the woman told the story, her hand involuntarily moved to her chest, where it clasped a pendant around her neck.

"Enko doesn't leave his house much anymore, really. Can you blame him? Nothing like this has happened here before. A week later, two more kids are gone. Another just a few days ago. It's all going to hell."

"Can you tell me more about the kids?" Sasuke asked after a long pause, when it appeared that the woman had caught her breath. "How old were they? Skill level?"

"Enko's son, Kuro, was not quite fourteen. I used to watch him when his parents were busy. Scrappy kid, dark hair and dark eyes. The others were older, all teenagers. The most recent was in his twenties – he had one of those green vests that ninja wear. They were all good kids… I don't know why someone would do something like this."

Sasuke folded and refolded his napkin in his hand, a feeling of unsettledness rising in his gut. He wanted to speed this up. He asked for the woman's name.

"Gana. And yours?"

"Sasuke." He stood and offered her his hand, which she shook gratefully. Then, he turned and trudged toward the harbor master's house.

* * *

Sakura perched on her desk at the front of the class, watching her students scribbling away. Exams made for an easy day as a teacher, but a frustrating day as a doctor. She desperately wanted to be at the hospital, working with her patients, instead of watching these kids put pen to paper. She glanced out the window, where the sun shone brilliantly against the newly-fallen snow.

One by one, each student handed in their papers, thanked her, and headed out to enjoy a few weeks of class-free holiday break. She didn't blame them for their relieved expressions – her class was known for being one of the more intensive in the Konoha medical school.

When they'd all finished, Sakura locked up the classroom and slipped into her office. She dropped off the exams in the TA's box, grabbed her bag, and headed to the hospital wing at a fast clip. She pushed through the double doors, and the rush of beeping monitors and nurses brought her immediate ease. She changed into her scrubs mechanically, dropped her bag in a cubby, and dove into the fray. Within minutes, she was setting a child's arm, and then healing a puncture wound from an exercise-gone-awry, and then back to setting another broken bone.

"Here, I want you to hold up your good arm like this. Okay?" Sakura raised her hand, and the five-year-old she was treating mimicked. "Perfect. Hold that there, and I'll be right back with your new armor!" Kids needed encouragement when it came to wearing a splint for eight weeks.

Sakura turned away to grab something on her tray of scalpels and bandages and froze mid-stride. At first, it was just a pulse of pain in her chest. A white-hot pain that shook her core and snatched her breath. Then, it spread in a blindingly wildfire, filling her with a fear and a horror that was not her own. Her body trembled violently, and she tried to open her mouth but couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. The intensity of the pain consumed her.

Then, the screaming. The most viscerally horrible sound she'd ever heard – a tortured agony that cried out over and over again in her ears, more pain and fury than she'd experienced – roaring in her ears like a violent drum. Her tray clattered to the floor, tools flying in all directions. She crumpled against the wall, covering her ears, but couldn't get away. Tears leaked from her eyes as she sunk to her knees on the floor, nurses crowding around her as she curled into a ball on the linoleum. She couldn't hear them over the screams. Screams that, as she was forced to listen, she knew she recognized.

Then, all at once, it stopped.

* * *

Enko, the harbor master, eagerly led his new guest into the kitchen. Although his eyes were gray – the kind of deep gray one gets from prolonged grief – he smiled pleasantly, and showed Sasuke around the main level of his house as any good host would. He was a stocky man, with thick arms and a thicker beard. His clothes were simple, his demeanor equally so: a fisherman, who'd lost his wife and son, trying to make things right.

"Can I interest you in some tea?" asked Enko, after offering Sasuke a seat at the kitchen table. He nodded, and Enko busied himself at the kettle. Sasuke, meanwhile, took a moment to examine the room.

The house was simple enough – sparse decorations, no paintings or photos, just old floral wallpaper, a few trinkets on the shelves, and simple furniture. He sensed no other chakra signatures in the house, and he checked to make sure.

Enko set two mugs on the table, and took a deep sip of his own. "I hope you like green," he said quietly, glancing up at Sasuke for nervous affirmation. Sasuke thanked him, and sipped at the drink. It was warm and delightfully bitter. Although not his favorite, it would certainly do.

"Tell me everything," Sasuke said quietly, folding his hands in front of his face and leaning in.

Enko talked at length, repeating much of the information offered by the woman at the stand. He was out fishing for the day, his son visiting home after being away from some time. They went out to the forests to forage, and never came back. Enko stared into his mug, his demeanor saddening as he pressed on.

Sasuke stifled a yawn as the man spoke. He was very tired – he had slept poorly the previous night. He took another sip of his tea and shook his head to clear himself.

"Can you tell me more about your son? How old was he?" Sasuke managed as Enko stood and moved into the kitchen. The man took out a few biscuits from a cupboard, and set to arranging them on a plate.

"He was a good boy. Tall, smudge of dark hair. Bright brown eyes, like his mum. Terrible at taijutsu, but he had a knack for substitutions. Best in his class!" Enko seemed to lose his train of thought, before picking it up again. "He was eighteen."

 _Eighteen?_

Sasuke sat back in his chair. His head was swimming, he couldn't think. Something was wrong. His eyes flicked up to glare at Enko, and found the man watching him closely, an odd gleam to his eye. Sasuke tried to stand up, and stumbled back. His body felt heavy and unresponsive. He squeezed his eyes shut, but found his mind unable to keep a straight thought. He gripped the edge of the table, his knuckles turning white, and mustered all he had to stay steady.

"W-what the hell did you do to me?" he growled through gritted teeth, snapping an eye open to glare across the room.

He could sense Enko rushing toward him, but it was at a lag. He tried to gather up his chakra, but the threads evaded him. Something heavy rammed into him, and he slammed back hard onto the wood floor. He tried to activate his eyes, but couldn't. He tried again, and the familiar red tomoes swam before his vision, but too slowly.. _This is bad._

A feral instinct took over, and he drove his knee into the person that had attacked him. Everything was blurry, he couldn't see anything at all. He could feel the edges of his senses going black. He was passing out, that much he knew, and fury lanced through his limbs at the thought of it. He forced his chakra through the fog, and didn't realize until after that he was yelling. In a flash of light, he could see and his Mangekyou slid easily into place—

But it was too late. He looked down, only to see that he was standing in the middle of a seal on the floor. A seal for chakra absorption. There were seals everywhere, actually, and he was in the middle of them all. And they were glowing, in the midst of activating, milliseconds away from sealing his defenses away. An ambush. A fucking perfect ambush.

Rage consumed him. Screaming in fury, he lit fire to the room. As the black of unconsciousness closing in on him, he sent black flames everywhere he could touch. _Burn in hell, burn in hell, burn in hell–_

A blinding light swallowed the room as the seals finished activating. His screams turned from fury to agony. He collapsed in a heap, unable to see or feel or think apart from the searing of the seals. And then he was out, limp on the floor as the enemy scrambled to cart him away.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 _I'm back, friends! I know it's been a long time – almost ten years, if you're counting – and I could not be more excited to be here. Thank you for all of the PMs and the notes you've left me during my absence, it truly warmed my heart to come back to all of the love._

 _This story came to me one night while I was re-reading the last few chapters of the Naruto manga, and I was so frantic to write it down that I ran out of my boyfriend's house in my pajamas to go home and make it happen._

 _I hope you like it! Please review, lovelies. :3_

 _xoxo Indigo_


	2. Dream

**Chapter 2 –** **Dream**

* * *

Sakura struggled into a seated position, the wall behind her feeling cold against her shoulder blades. Her heart fluttered against her ribcage as she blinked up at the faces peering down at her. At least six nurses crowded around, blocking the fluorescence and peppering the air with questions that swirled in a dense loudness. She inhaled sharply, sliding her eyes closed for a moment to gather herself.

"Please back up, everyone," she said evenly, using the wall to help herself to her feet. Although a faint ringing remained in her ears, whatever had so violently gripped her only minutes before had vanished. Sakura allowed herself a moment to regain her balance, shooing away with staff who remained with a gloved hand. She refused eye contact, keeping her narrowed gaze on the tales, tracing the outlines methodically.

Something had happened to Sasuke.

Even as she threaded here way back to help the patient she'd attended before the episode—and was promptly shooed away by a nurse to take the day—he was all she could think about. He had a nasty habit of captivating her thoughts, but this was different.

The chakra signature that had entered her, the screaming in her head— it was all unmistakably his, and it terrified her. His last known contact had been in Kyreen, which was much too far away for chakra signatures to be detected and to contact one another. Nothing like this had happened before, and she didn't know what it meant, or what to do. Sakura just knew that she needed to do _something,_ immediately. She had to get to Naruto.

"Please come with me," barked Sakura suddenly at her favorite nurse, who she spotted across the room. The girl perked up and hurried over to follow in Sakura's wake as she blustered out of the emergency room. She blew into the locker room, ripping off her scrubs and yanking on her shinobi garb while she spoke.

"What happened in there?"

"You passed out, m'am. It looked like a seizure, but you were quite conscious." The nurse's voice trembled.

"Did I say anything? Could you hear anything?" Sakura pushed, her voice lurching while her cerulean hues burned with urgency.

"N-no, m'am," the nurse said quickly.

Before the nurse could stutter another word, Sakura took off. She sprinted down the hall, slammed through the main doors, and flash-stepped up to the roof. She darted as fast as she could across the town, leaping from building to building, her eyes trained on the Hokage building.

How could something like this happen? She couldn't get the sound of Sasuke out of her head. She never thought anything would happen to him – he and Naruto were unbeatable. What the hell _had_ happened? She had never felt something like that before, that visceral tug wrenching at her chest over such a great distance. Had he done it on purpose? Was he trying to call her? Was he alive?

She had an image in her head of him trapped somewhere, alone in the dark, hurt and incapacitated, and a single tear snuck past her defenses and cascaded down her cheek. She needed to help him. She couldn't leave him out there. Wherever he was, dead or alive, she needed to be there. She had to protect him, this time.

When Sakura arrived at the Hokage building, she burst through the doors to find Kakashi's chair empty. Naruto stood on the porch outside, his back to her, surveying Konoha with wind tugging at his hair.

"Naruto!" she shouted, rushing across the room to meet him and leaping past the sliding glass door. Naruto's eyes were darkened, glazed, his jaw set in a firm line, and he didn't move to look at her. She could feel the fury radiating from him like a heat, and when she set a hand on his shoulder, she felt him trembling beneath his orange jacket.

"You felt it too, Sakura?" he asked quietly. She nodded once.

"I was standing right here," he continued, eyes falling to his sandals. "Kurama felt it too."

"Naruto," she said quietly, hands tightening at her side. "We need to go after him. If he's hurt, or worse, we need to get a team together—"

Naruto turned to her and gripped her shoulders. His bright blue eyes gleaming, he grinned down at her.

"Sakura-chan, breathe. We'll get him back. I already called Taka, and those idiots are going to meet you and another team member at the crossroads. Shikamaru and Hinata are both back and rested from their most recent mission, so take your pick."

"Aren't you coming, Naruto-kun?"

The blonde shinobi's expression tightened, his blue hues flecked with gray. He fell a step back and clasped his hands together, twisting them together. His lower lip stuck out, sapphire gaze flickered up to the clouds tilting overhead.

"I'll be behind you," he said finally. The words visibly tugged at him, his hands balling into fists. "I'm standing in for Kakashi for the next few days. I can't leave right now."

Sakura reached out and took Naruto's wrists in each of her hands, uncoiling his fingers and coaxing the palms flat in the space between them. Her small hands dwarfed in comparison, the Kyuubi's heat tingling against her skin. She grasped his hands firmly, emerald eyes darting up to capture Naruto's before he could look away. She could sense the turmoil lashing out in his chakra – his instinct to protect his friend far outweighing his responsibility to stay in Konoha. The scarlet and crimsons energy pulsed into the air around her, and she squeezed his hands tighter.

"It's okay, Naruto," she breathed, holding his cerulean gaze. "You need to stay here. Let us help make _your_ dream come true, this time. I will handle this. We will handle this."

The blonde shinobi blinked, and looked away quickly. He scratched the back of his head absently."I can't just leave him out there," he protested.

Sakura balled her hand into a fist and made to jab him in the chest, stopping just short. Her knuckles hummed against the fabric of his t-shirt, and she could feel his heart thumping beneath.

"No, Naruto," she said, her eyes alight with flecks of gold. "You've earned this. And we can't afford to lose your spot to someone else who can't protect us like you can. Hinata and I will get a head start, and you will meet us as soon as you can."

Naruto's jaw slackened, then reset.

"Sakura-chan..." he trailed off.

"Wait for my raven. I'll see you soon." With that, Sakura brushed past Naruto and leapt up to the railing ahead of them. From there, she charged up the soles of her boots with chakra and launched to the next building, wind tugging moisture from her eyes. When she tucked into a roll on the landing, she stole a glance back.

Naruto, still just outside of the office, rose a hand in salute. Sakura exhaled and took off.

* * *

 _Cold._

That was the first sensation that rattled him when he finally came to. The second was darkness, and the sheer weight of the black pressing down on his chest. Pain came third in a distant, aching wave. He was aware of the wounds on his body, and of the hot taste of iron on his tongue, but he couldn't nail down any one sensation. It was as if the sensation swam around him, drowning him without an anchor.

His senses, apart from those three, did not awaken. No smell, no touch, no sight. Like a soul detached from a body that he could not see.

Then, a voice. Muffled and unrecognizable, but a voice from far away. He tried to listen, tried to turn toward it and focus on the sound, struggling against the blackness for something to bring it all into perspective.

 _Wake up._

He recoiled. The voice was sinister. He didn't want to wake up. He fought back.

 _Wake up._

The pain that had once been so distant drew closer. He writhed away from it now, but he had no leverage, and it wrenched him into the light.

Sasuke awoke, choking. There was something over his eyes, and a wet piece of fabric over his mouth. He was choking, violently, and he couldn't breathe. He tried to move, but was bound tight with ropes that cut and burned at his skin. Beneath his bare shoulder blades, a cold metal table. Immense pain erupted in his leg, made worse as he jerked and fought.

Voices above him, a chorus of rough hands holding him down.

Then, someone lifted the fabric from his face. Water spewed from his mouth as he hacked and choked in the air. Breathing. His heart hammered against his chest, his lungs on fire. His mind felt numb, and he still couldn't see.

"Sasuke-kun," drawled someone next to him.

He didn't recognize the voice. He began assessing his body, trying to determine the state of things. His knee was busted, his wrist broken. A stab wound in his side. Cuts and burns across his chest. His chakra supply so depleted that he could scarcely lift a finger.

 _Assess._

He was being held captive, he knew that. He knew he was being tortured. He didn't know where he was, or who was doing this to him, and he didn't know why. How long had it been? He didn't know that either. Was anyone even looking for him? Would they know where to look? The unfamiliar discomfort of fear twisted in his belly, and he shoved the sensation down.

Without warning, something hard drove into the wound in his side and he groaned. Someone's hand? He tasted blood in his mouth and groaned, turning his head away. An intense nausea gathered in his throat.

"When I speak, you listen," snarled his assailant, standing above him somewhere. Sasuke was too disoriented to pinpoint where the voice came from, the darkness blinding.

"Does the name 'Sasori' ring any bells?" asked the speaker.

 _The Akatsuki puppet master?_ Sasuke tried to tether the thought down. He'd heard whisperings, long ago, that a certain rose-haired kunoichi had taken the guy out. He nodded once.

"Well, good, that's a start. I take much of my inspiration from Sasori-san…." the voice trailed off. Sasuke listened closely as the man's footsteps moved across the room. He heard him pick something up off of a metal surface and pace back and forth. The echoing betrayed the presence of walls – they were in a relatively small room, from what Sasuke could tell.

"He was on the right track, using bodies as puppets. But, his research never reached its full potential," the voice rang. Footsteps, tapping on tiles across the room, approached. Sasuke blew out a held breath, fighting to stay calm.

"I asked myself – why stop with bodies? So much of a body's strength lies in its _living_ abilities…it seems so obvious."

Sasuke felt fingers curl around his arm, and the prick of an IV going into his wrist. He struggled across the chakra-infused bands that bound him to the table, with no success. They zapped what little strength he had, and his body went slack.

"The real prize is in the kekkei genkai and preexisting skills of a _living_ shinobi. Without those, the body is a husk, and the puppet is weak. I want the whole thing."

Sasuke felt his body go warm, his fingertips tingling as he drifted into unconsciousness.

* * *

The pinkette kunoichi darted out of the shade of the trees, dropped to a crouch, and surveyed the valley that dipped below them. Her dominant hand snapped to the kit strapped to her leg, fingers dancing between the weapons and scrolls tucked within. Hinata slid in behind her, her white eyes flashing as she checked for signs of approaching shinobi.

"Clear," the Hyuuga prodigy breathed, tucking a loose strand of jet-black hair behind her eat.

The women took off down the hillside and onward. They'd been running for three days, and the late afternoon sun shone golden on the trees spread ahead of them. The valley would take the rest of the day to get through, and the coast waited for them on the opposite side, beyond sight. There they would meet and camp for the night with Suigetsu and Juugo, and then make their final push north to Kyreen the following morning.

"Sakura-chan," called Hinata after some time had passed, darting up to run at her side through the treetops. "Thank you, for taking me with you."

Sakura blinked at her teammate's sudden sincerity. After her conversation with Naruto back in Konoha, she had burst into Hinata's house unannounced and nearly dragged the poor girl out the gate to get the mission started. It was hardly worth gratitude. A berating sounded more appropriate.

"What? No, don't be–"

"I mean it, Sakura," Hinata stammered. "Back when we were kids—you and Naruto, and getting Sasuke back, it just didn't make sense to me. I didn't help like I should have. I want to make that up to you."

She smiled at the rosette, her eyes glimmering. Sakura grinned, reached out, and gave her hand a tight squeeze.

"Thank you, Hinata. That means the world. I'm glad you're here, too."

* * *

Suigetsu splayed out on the ground, in the middle of the campsite, his limbs outstretched in sleep. His mouth lay open, drool dribbling down his chin, his teeth exposed and glittering hazardously. Juugo stepped over him, grumbling something unintelligible as he dropped a pile of firewood next to the flames he'd put together. When he sat next to the fire, wrapping his shoulders with a blanket, a songbird landed to join him. He stirred the pot of stew he had heating up over the fire, and the bird watched intently.

Abruptly, a human whistle sounded out from the trees, and he responded in turn. Minutes later, two Konoha kunoichi tiptoed into the light.

They both stumbled with exhaustion – betrayed by the disheveled hair and clothes and the dark circles beneath each of their eyes. Sakura had a particularly hallowed look to her, her eyes flickering nervously around the campsite. Hinata, although tired, seemed slightly more calm.

Juugo motioned for the women to join him, and they sidled up to the fire gratefully. He reached into his pack and pulled out bowls, handing them to the girls along with a ladle and spoons.

"Juugo, this is so much. Thank you," murmured Hinata. They both devoured their first helpings, and went back for seconds. Juugo smiled, but said nothing before turning and giving Suigetsu a good kick in the side. The Mist nin yelped in his sleep, but did not wake. Juugo rolled his eyes and returned to the kunoichi.

"We should get some sleep," he mumbled. "We can brief tomorrow morning. Good to see you both. Despite the circumstances."

With that, Juugo lumbered to the opposite side of the clearing, and saw to laying out his blankets. Sakura and Hinata followed suit. The exhaustion took Sakura as soon as her head hit the ground. Her eyes fluttered shut, and she dreamed.

* * *

 _A knock at the door, one summer evening. The sunset light streaming in through the windows, dancing on the floorboards. Sakura wearing a slinky white nightgown that clung to her thighs, curled on the couch with a medical textbook. She wasn't expecting anyone._

 _She pulled a robe over her shoulders and opened the door, drawing back in surprise. Nearly year had passed since she'd seen him last, and here he was again. Obsidian eye glittering, dark hair long and unkept. Just standing on her doorstep as if it were any other day._

" _W-what are you doing here?" The words bubbled from her mouth as she overtook the initial shock. She noticed that the dark lines under Sasuke's eyes had deepened, and he looked more like his father than she remembered._

" _I was in town," he said simply, eyes holding hers so intently that she blushed._

" _You… were in town," she repeated._

" _Hn." Agreement? Acknowledgment?_

" _So, you decided to just drop in?" He raised his eyebrow at the statement, as if it were obvious, and shrugged. She shook her head incredulously, then turned back into her apartment._

" _Well, come on in then."_

 _She poured two glasses of wine, and they went out to the porch to watch the sun settle beyond the horizon together. Sakura peppered him with questions about his travels, which he answered with as few words as possible, but answered all-the-same. They enjoyed the silence, too._

 _As the light dwindled, replaced by stars overhead, Sakura rose to her feet. She turned to him to say something, but found him suddenly closer than she'd realized, his hand gliding to rest on her shoulder._

 _His face hovered a breath from hers, porcelain skin as smooth as she remembered, his dark eyes softened in amusement, staring impassively into hers. He drew closer, rested his forehead against hers, their noses nearly grazing. His hand lingered to cup her face, the brush of his thumb gentle against her cheek. His breath warm and sweet. Slowly she moved her hands to rest on his back, fingers tracing the sinew of muscles that moved and flexed as he did._

 _She'd never known him to be uncertain, but when he drew back, his expression was hardened, as if searching her face for something to read. It occurred to her that he didn't know if this was okay. He didn't know if she was alright with the proximity. He didn't know if_ he _was alright, either. A small smile moved across her face, and she towed him back into her apartment._

* * *

 **Author's Note**

Thank you for the read! I put up a list of songs that I've been listening to while writing this, and they're up in my profile, if you're interested! Please review – I'm genuinely interested to hear your thoughts and opinions, and it helps motivate me to write. ;w;

Thank you, lovelies!

xoxo

Indigo


	3. Stirrings

**Chapter 3 – Stirrings**

* * *

 _After many years of neglect, the Uchiha sector in Konoha was finally approved for a reconstruction. The buildings, littered with shingles and chipped pain, had fallen into disrepair, and the crimson slashes that still stained the hard-to-reach cracks of the cobblestone mainstreet warned away any potential new visitors._

 _So, when an anonymous donor put in with a fully-funded application, citing the need to re-center the Uchiha clan around something other than tragedy, the village counsel was happy to oblige._

 _Said anonymous donor passed beneath the gate now, eyes darting about the remnants of construction with distaste. The dust of new cement lay like a film over everything, a forgotten bulldozer waiting quietly beside the road. Sasuke made a mental note to berate the commissioned architect before pausing to survey the rest of what had once been his home. His expression remained mute, lips tugged in a firm line, his jawline slicing and set against gritted teeth._

 _Despite his initial disapproval, the construction team had done well. They'd built a large public park just past where Sasuke stood, and maintained and remodeled a cluster of homes just behind it. A children's playground, polished and lonely, was joined by benches and a lone statue. The air hung sweetly with the scent of freshly-cut grass, and a newly-planted flower garden along the edge of the park whistled with lavender and cerulean hydrangeas. He learned to throw shuriken in this same park, although it looked much different then._

 _Along the main drag, Sasuke commissioned a museum and a library, both closed for the evening, as well as a few shops yet to be filled. He hoped one would be a restaurant, the other something aimed toward shinobi, like a specialty scroll or tool shop._

 _Beyond the row of buildings lay an empty stretch, giving way to a series of murals that decorated the walls, detailing the story of the clan in sweeping colors and caricatures. As Sasuke passed it, several of his own images stared back at him. One as a child, hang tucked into a young Itachi's, another during the War, impaled upon his own kusanagi, in the hands of Madara._

 _Sasuke looked away sharply, twisting around to cast a glance at the statue in the park. His brother gazed back, a serene expression warming his face, cloaked in a traditional Uchiha kimono. Beneath his sandals, too far for Sasuke to read, stood a plaque, detailing the sacrifice Itachi had once made on behalf of the village and his younger brother._

 _Sasuke's dropped his gaze back to the cobblestone beneath his feet, and continued down the street. Each footstep echoed in the quiet._

 _Beyond the murals, a new building. Tall and inviting, with big windows and several stories – an orphanage, the focal point of the entire initiative. Sasuke had been adamant about this piece of the new sector, Naruto had been quick to support it on a higher level. The intention was to take in kids and offer not just a place to live, but also mentorship program that paired elite shinobi with the children to give them a much-needed parental figure. Although the program was just getting onto its feet, they already had a few children enrolled, and Kakashi and Naruto had both volunteered to be a part of it._

 _As Sasuke examined the building, a small girl waddled out from the open front door. No more than four-years-old, with olive skin and a swirl of white hair. One of the women who worked at the building followed her out and parading the child back inside, their voices a faint bubble._

" _Sasuke-kun!"_

 _The young Uchiha whipped around, and an emerald stare caught his gaze. Sakura stood just a few paces away, breathing heavily, a thin line of sweat running the length of her rosy cheek. The diamond on her forehead gleamed in the late afternoon light._

" _Sakura?" he said, blinking. She rushed toward him, her fist raised, and connected with his arm._

" _You–you IDIOT!" she yelled, swinging back and jabbing him again. Although she infused no chakra into her blows, she hit hard, and he staggered back to avoid a third hit._

" _What the hell, Sakura?" he hissed. She glowered at him, gloved hands still balled into fits. Her signature strawberry hair had lengthened since he'd last seen her, and it tumbled along the small of her back in thick waves. Instead of her usual shinobi garb, she wore a slim floral dress, with thin straps that exposed the ripple of strength in her shoulders._

" _You cannot just sneak into the village like this," she said finally, hands on her hips. He'd been gone for just short of a year, and hadn't visited or communicated with the village apart from a few mission-related letters to the Hokage._

" _If I were sneaking, you wouldn't be here," he intoned. He turned at a squeal from behind him, and he eyed the orphanage as the overseer from earlier reappeared on the porch, swinging the child overhead. The child squealed again in delight._

" _You can't – why can't you just say hello?" Sakura's tone shifted into something more gentle as she, too, watched the child over his shoulder, a hint of a smile softening her expression._

" _Hello," said Sasuke, turning back around to look at the kunoichi, his sharp obsidians snatching her gaze and holding it there. His chakra surrounded her, black as night and pulsing into the air like a living entity. She could feel it licking at her skin, almost with a mind of its own, hot and deadly without even meaning to be._

 _Sakura soured immediately, and jabbed the Uchiha in the chest with an extended finger. "That–is–not–what–I–meant!" she grumbled, punctuating each word with another jab. A faint tug of a smile edged at the corner of Sasuke's cheek, and he swatted her hand away. Sakura rolled her eyes and shot a glance off toward the park, and the homes beyond._

" _Which one of these is yours?" she asked after a pause, her eyes sneaking a glance up to Sasuke's. His obsidian eyes gleamed, flickering down to hold her gaze mutely. She broke the contact and continued: "I've come into here a few times to check out the construction, but I never knew where to look."_

" _I'm going there now," he said quietly. "You can see it." He started walking in that direction, without looking back. Sakura wavered in place._

" _If you want to be alone, I get it, I can go–" she started._

" _Hurry up, Sakura." She hid her grin as she jogged after him along the path._

* * *

Sasuke awoke to his heart hammered against his ribcage. His body trembling with tension and exhaustion, whatever chakra stores he once had diminished. The dark pressed against his eyes, and when he tried to move he, expectedly, found himself bound. When he breathed, the thick, saturated stench of decay rushed at him. His lips, cracked and papery, bled down the side of his chin. The skin of his one remaining hand ached – although he could not see it, he recognized the pain as a burn, extending from fingertip to elbow.

His head pounded, and thirst clawed at his throat. Hunger snarled in his empty belly. Then, a sound brought him out of himself and into alertness: the scrambling of movement on the cold, rock surface.

"You awake?"

He didn't recognize the voice, but it carried less authority than the man in the room from before. This voice knew fear – this voice too, was a captive. Or, at least, pretending to be. Sasuke hadn't the energy to analyze, it was all he could do just to lay in stillness and listen.

The person scrambled closer, and Sasuke tried to move away, but succeeded only in turning his face to the side and further aggravating his trembling limbs.

"Hey, stop." A gentle hand on his shoulder. Sasuke could feel the person sitting over him, hear the heart beat and feel the warmth radiating from the persons skin. He tried to open his mouth to speak, but only a faint crackle made it out from his throat.

"Stop, stop. I have water. Tilt your head back, and I'll pour." He did as he was told, and he felt the edge of a bucket press to his mouth, and lukewarm water splashed past his lips. He nearly choked on it in surprise, but after a moment, he drank gratefully until the source ran dry. His companion withdrew the pail, and sat beside him silently.

"I…can't see," Sasuke croaked, after a moment had passed between them.

"There's a seal, tied around your head. And another one around your body. I tried to take them off, when you were asleep, but it burnt my hands," said the person quietly. "I'm sorry."

He sounded like a small boy, from what Sasuke could tell. His voice not quite dropped, the sounds he made not heavy enough to come from a grown adult. Fear and loneliness hung around his presence in a thick cloud.

"Where are we?" Sasuke asked, his voice hoarse.

"No one knows," answered the boy quietly. "It's some kind of lab. We're in the cells, right now. They brought you in a few hours ago."

"What…happens here?" Sasuke wished he could get a good look at the kid.

"They're working on some kind of mind-control technique. I don't know how it works," murmured the child. "But, do you notice when your body aches and hurts, and you're always so tired when you wake up?

Sasuke nodded stiffly.

"Someone probably used your body, while you were sleeping. The guy in charge, he calls us puppets…" the boy continued. "I'm not very exciting, I'm just a genin. I don't know why they took me." The boy's silence filled with tears.

Sasuke wanted to be able to tell the boy it would be alright, but couldn't. The words didn't rise to his throat because he didn't believe them. He couldn't imagine a scenario where they'd make it out from this pit in a timely, _living_ manor.

It would take weeks for anyone to notice his absence – that was usually how these sequences transpired. A few days for Konoha to take note of his lack of correspondence, and another few days to decide that the breach in communication indicated that he'd been attacked or captured. Another handful of days to get to Kyreen, and to take stock of whatever had happened there. And, finally, actually finding this prison he was being kept it – there was no way of telling how long that would take. His chakra signature was too weak to track, and it wouldn't be easy to find.

In the meantime, would his body actually be used as a weapon? He racked his brain, searching for anything that could indicate what took place during his long stints of unconscious, but came up with nothing. He couldn't fathom such a thing, couldn't believe it. Wouldn't he notice something like that? He felt like a child, his fate beyond the reach of his own fingertips.

His eyes fluttered shut beneath the mask, and exhaustion rose up to meet him. He wanted to go home. He wanted to go back to Konoha.

* * *

From a distance, the rescue mission could see the smoke. It poured into the clouds, blackening the overcast sky and bleeding out beyond its source. The smell reached them next – thick and acidic, not just the charcoal of burning wood, but also the sharpness of melting metal and flesh.

When the smell and smoke became critical, Sakura pulled the team to a stop, reached into the medical kit on her hip and produced masks. She'd brought them to use in case of a medical emergency, but they would certainly work to filter the air in a pinch. She secured her own mask over her face, hooking it behind her ears, and then they took off again. Flocks of sea birds wheeled overhead, travelling swiftly in the opposite direction.

Instead, the rosette kunoichi doubled her pace, charging up the soles of her boots with chakra and leaping ahead. The rest of the team followed suit wordlessly – the urgency of their mission heating up as swiftly as the air around them.

They crested a knoll earth, the source of the smoke just on the opposite side. Sakura put out her hand, and the team tucked themselves neatly to the trees lining the cliff to stay out of sight and assess the valley that dipped below them.

Hinata gasped. Even Suigetsu's face flickered with a nervous apprehension.

Flames as black as night had consumed the small village. Where there were once buildings, there was now nothing but piles of smoldering ash. Nothing remained but the blackness of the earth and the blackness of the Amaterasu, licking toward the sky and clawing at the earth, spreading violently away from where the town had once been.

Even the ships anchored off shore burned, the flames jumping easily from dock to buoy to boat. Sakura shivered as the stench of flesh hit her face, sliding easily past her mask. She could see the remnants of corpses and skeletons near where the entrance to the town had been. Trying to flee the flames in vain, and frozen forever in stride. Tears sprung to the kunoichi's eyes, and she took a step toward the village.

"Sakura, don't," warned Hinata, putting a hand on her teammate's shoulders. She'd activated the Byakugan, and her eyes flickered around before them. "We can't risk approaching those flames. Not without someone to put them out."

Sakura looked at her feet, fingers curling around the hilt of a kunai strapped to her thigh. Her rosette locks hung in front of her face, blocking her eyes, which ached with grief. A deep tightness roiled in her chest.

 _Had Sasuke done this? Did Sasuke mean to kill all of these people?_

The kunoichi ground the heel of her boot into the dirt, swallowing the memories that surfaced with the thought. Of all of the instances he'd tried to kill her, and slaughter Naruto. When he announced his plans to destroy Konoha, and the maniacal laugh that had gurgled from his throat when he'd tried to gut her with a chidori. All mere months before their reconciliation during the War.

Her jaw slackened, and she dug her nails into the skin of her forearm. She couldn't block the sound of his cackle from ringing in her ears. The furious glint in his eye. The sensation of dread, drowning in it, when Susanoo manifested before her for the first time. The scream of the Amaterasu flames before her now. Her trust in him began to slip.

Delicate fingers slipped into her hand and gave it a squeeze. Sakura looked up sharply to find Hinata at her side.

"We'll find him, Sakura-chan," she whispered, squeezing her hand again. "I don't believe this was his fault."

"What do you think happened?" Sakura asked, her tone dark. Other than herself and Naruto, the rest of the Rookie 9 were always quick to blame the ex-missing nin for any wrongdoings. Many still believed he deserved prison for his defection, or worse.

"Look at the blast pattern," said the Hyuuga shinobi, pointing to the far side of the village. Close to the water, in an area where the flames had already eaten all of the life and moved on, lay a circular pattern of burns. The center was clear, with barely a burn at all, but beyond that safe center everything had been incinerated to a particularly harsh degree.

"I've only seen Sasuke use Amaterasu a few times, but it's always controlled. This looks like an explosion – have you seen anything like that before?" asked Hinata. Sakura shook her head, and when the women turned to Team Taka, they appeared equally dumbfounded.

"I'd say, then, that this was a reaction to a moment of extreme stress or danger. His chakra trying to make a last-ditch effort to protect him," said Hinata, her tone careful but unwavering. She was sure of herself and in her assessment.

The team stood in place, each imagining what must have happened in their own terms. Sasuke's sheer speed, combined with his visual prowess and propensity for strategy, made it all hard to fathom.

"We should go to the next town, to the north," said Sakura, not wishing to dwell upon the what-ifs..

"Why?" drawled Suigetsu. "We're not going to find him cracking open a cold one at the local pub."

"If there are any survivors, that's where they'll be. And we need more information about what happened here."

Following Sakura's lead, the team took off again, maintaining a wide girth around the town to avoid any of the snarling flames, and continued north.

* * *

When Sasuke dreamed, he dreamed he was a child. Standing in the middle of the main road in the Uchiha Clan sector, not yet tall enough to see above the buildings. Evening lit the road in shades of orange, and music and laughter rang out into the street, animated shadows dancing within the windows he passed.

"Sasuke-kun!"

He turned, his brother jogging toward him. Itachi was no older than ten – a scrape on his knee, the lines under his eyes not yet formed. His dark eyes big and glittering as his pony tail swung past his shoulders.

"Sasuke-kun, there you are." Itachi stopped in front of him, grinnig broadly. "We're late for supper."

He stooped and gave Sasuke a squeeze, ruffling his hair affectionately. When he straightened up, Itachi looked suddenly concerned. His brow knit together. He bent his knees to get on eye-level, eyes widening as he held Sasuke's gaze.

"Wake up, Sasuke," he said abruptly.

"Nii-san?" Sasuke whispered, staggering back, clutching at his chest.

"Wake up! Right now, Sasuke!" Itach was yelling now, sharply and in his younger brother's ear.

 _Wake up, Sasuke! Wake up! Wake up, NOW!_

A sharp intake of breath, and Sasuke opened his eyes. Light seeped in, blinding in its brightness. His hand moved up and wiped sweat from his forehead–

Except it wasn't his hand. It was _his_ hand – it surely belonged to him – but _he_ wasn't the one moving it. His body took a step forward, and his arm reached to his belt and closed around his katana.

Sasuke recoiled. He tried to lift his arm, and couldn't. Instead, it continued to reach for the katana, sliding it easily from its holster. Sasuke focused all of his effort in trying to keep the arm still, but it moved fluidly and easily beyond his control, waving the weapon in front of him with ease.

It dawned on him, finally, that all he could do was observe. He was a passenger, a detached soul, watching the world and his body move, all beyond his grasp. He tried to scream, and no sound came out. His body's mouth held tightly shut.

His body twirled the blade, and dropped into a defensive crouch. He stood in a town that appeared much like Kyreen – all around him, he took in the flutter of fabric as villagers scrambled away from him in all directions.

"Why are you doing this?" a young shinobi appeared before them, wearing a chuunin vest. He couldn't be more than seventeen, and his expression betrayed the terror that shook his thin frame. Sasuke's mouth opened, and words that were not his own came out in a lurching voice:

"I am practicing," his body said. And then, quickly, " _Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu_!"

Fire erupted from his core, shooting out toward the unsuspecting shinobi. The boy cried out, dodged, and scrambled to get away. Sasuke's body took off after him, flash-stepping just ahead and blocking his path.

Chidori screeched down the length of the blade as his body raised it, suspending the screeching lightning rod overhead as blue light danced before his eyes. His grip tightened. Preparing to slice the child into death–

Then, new chakra signatures flared in his peripheral. His body tensed and turned to face them, assuming a defensive crouch. A growl that wasn't his own rattled his throat.

In the distance, rushing into view, he could just make out four shinobi sprinting toward the village. A flash of rose-colored locks, and something stirred in Sasuke's stomach.

 _Sakura?_

* * *

 **A/N**

Happy Holidays! And Merry Christmas Eve! I hope that, wherever you are in the world and whatever you choose to celebrate during this time of the year, that you are surrounded by love and lots of yummy sweets. :) I just finished baking way too much pumpkin bread that I wish I could share with you all!

My family couldn't make it out for the holidays this year, so I'm spending tonight and tomorrow night with my boyfriend's family. I'm a little sad not to be able to snuggle with my dog and kitty back in California, but I'm also enjoying my stay-cation in Colorado. Work has been so busy lately, and I'm excited to catch up on all the chores I've been putting off and devote a bunch of time to rehabbing my (very broken) knee and writing more!

Thank you for all of the reviews – you guys are so sweet, and I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far. I'll try to update soon!

Dark: I would have PMed this to you, but I want you (and everyone else) to know that I actually edited a part into the previous chapter that explains more detail about why Naruto couldn't join the team right off the bat. I switched out the chapter within 5min of posting, but I guess it took a little longer to actually show up? Either way, hopefully this version of Chapter 2 explains why Naruto isn't joining Sakura and Hinata. Don't worry, he'll join up with the team soon!

Love you all, and drop a note if you can!

xoxo

Indigo


	4. Illusions

**Chapter 4 – Illusions**

* * *

The silhouette of the next town began to nudge the horizon as they approached, the sky above rumbling with an advancing storm. The forest from the south had given way to open meadows and tall reeds that shimmered in the gray light, wavering with each passing breeze. The sea cliffs relaxed into dunes that rolled into the sea in steady waves, and the team altered their course inland to avoid the lashing of wind building up with the weather.

"Did you guys feel that?" shouted Hinata, her voice straining over the wind.

A massive chakra signature flared up out of nowhere, just ahead and within the circle of homes they were fast approaching. Sakura sensed her heart flutter cold with the deadliness of the aura, the air snatched from her lungs before she could take a breath. When she reached out with her mind, she could feel the chakra itself towering above the town, black as night and flecked with an indigo-purple that burned against the charcoal of the sky.

Hinata activated her Byakugan and inhaled sharply. The beady, golden eyes of Susanoo flashed down at her from within the chakra, the furious roar of the wraith deafening in her ears, and her ears alone.

"He's here!" she called. The team assumed an attack formation, with Juugo and Suigetsu fanning out behind the two women. The Mist nin hefted the giant blade strapped to his back, and the leathery skin around his teammate's golden eyes began to ripple into transformation.

At once, the town sprung into view. Villagers streamed past them, running through the fields and away in all directions. Screams and shouts, and the sounds of children sobbing, frothed up from the village. The path they sprinted along took a sharp turn toward the chaos, and at once the main square opened up before them.

 _Sasuke-kun._

Sakura could just make his figure out within the throng of buildings and flames, standing with his back to them, his clan's crest glowing venomously from within the smoke. His shoulders were hunched, his stance wider than normal. Sakura felt the pit of her stomach twist as her gaze fell to his blade, suspended above the head of a small shinobi. She could just barely hear the screech of the chidori, snapping down the length of his katana, tense before the strike.

She screamed his name, the roar of the adrenaline in her ears louder even than her voice. She yelled again, and her voice cracked. Two-hundred yards. One-ninety-yards. Her speed maxed out, her teammates dragging behind her now. Still so far away. The Uchiha twisted around, his crimson glare suddenly locking on to hers.

 _Thump_.

A wave of chakra slammed into her, and she stumbled forward, crying out in surprise. When she looked up, everything dissolved into darkness.

Sakura blinked, and found herself in the middle of a dimly-lit hallway, a single torch flickering her surroundings to life. The eerie quietness that swirled around her served as an odd calm against the backdrop of the disarray she had so recently left.

 _What the hell?!_

She flickered her hues down and found the floor made of dark stone, the arching walls on either side carved with a pattern that resembled scales. A droplet of moisture hitting a puddle somewhere ahead echoed toward her and rung in her ears. She tucked a loose strand of her rosette bangs behind her ears and blew out a held breath.

"Sasuke?" she called out, taking a tentative step forward. This place felt strange – much different than any previous genjutsu she'd found herself in. Although the darkness and quietness of it rendered trembles down her neck, the pulse of warm from the torches and the general presence that hung in the air felt oddly safe. She couldn't explain it, but knew with an unsourced certainty that nothing within this place radiated violence or hostility toward her.

When she heard no answer, Sakura began to move forward along the passageway, each placement of her boots on the stone echoing out around her. The path didn't waver in its straightness, but seemed to descend slightly toward another torch, and another beyond that, lighting the way. At the end of the tunnel – for now, as she crept along, an end came into view – a streak of brightness glowed intensely in the dim.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out again, leaning forward into a run. She swallowed the fear that bubbled up to grasp at her throat and bundled her hands into fists. She could not let him down. She would not let him down.

At least she reached the brightness, only to find a row of steely bars blocking her way. On the other side, a cell. Or, not quite a cell, but a segment of the same hallway, with bars blocking it off from the opposite side as well, with more dark passageway extending beyond view. On the left of the cell, an unremarkable wall with another torch. The opposite side, to Sakura's right, flashed a wall of a blinding white light.

And, in the middle of it all, stood Sasuke, swirling tomoes of his Sharingan focused on something in the sidewall that she couldn't quite make out. The young Uchiha looked just like she remembered, the spikes of raven-black hair long and disheveled along the back of his neck. The skin of his face like untouched porcelain, save the flower of violet shadows beneath his eyes and the scar slashing over the sweep of his jawline. A bead of sweat gathered at his temple, and his teeth ground together with venom.

"Let me out!" he hissed suddenly, tearing toward the wall of light and hammering his fist against it. He reared back and smashed his hand into it again, then doubled back and thrashed his shoulder against it a final time. When he came away, his knuckles smeared with scarlet, his breath heaved. Sweat dripped now from his scalp, indicating he'd been at this for some time before Sakura's arrival.

"Sasuke-kun!" she called out , rushing up to the bars. She grasped them in her fists, jerking and pushing at them until they rattled, but didn't give way. Sasuke did seem to hear her, nor did he indicate he even knew she was there. He continued to lunge at the wall, again and again, blood pouring now from the seams of his fist.

Sakura hopped a few steps back, channeled all of the chakra she could into her right hand so that it glowed a fiery emerald, and flung it with everything she had at the bars in front of her.

She blinked – instead of buckling, the bars propelled the energy back at her, hurling her body back across the passageway to skid across the stone floor. When she slid to a stop, Sakura rolled onto her back and groaned, one shoulder blade aching from taking the majority of the fall. She wrestled to her feet, growling as she cracked her shoulder and spat a hint of blood that had gathered on her tongue.

Still in his cage, Sasuke's efforts had slowed. With each failed attempt, his motions seemed more sluggish, exhaustion seeping into every blow. With a final, feeble swing, he staggered backward and slammed into the wall, then slid to the ground. He sat against the wall in silence for a moment, his eyes finally falling from the brightness to his crimson-covered hand, then to the floor at his feet. His obsidian hues clouded with gray, the tomoes of his sharingan gone.

"Get up!" Sakura screamed, sprinting to the bars and yanking at them. "Get back up!"

He didn't move, didn't hear her. She swore under her breathe. Then, movement out of the corner of her eye amongst the brightness, caught her attention. She twisted around, pushing herself against the steel bars to get a better look into the light.

At once, the view tumbled into clarity, and Sakura saw her own self, through Sasuke's eyes, gazing back. Her own pinkette locks swirling around a sweat-drenched face. Her green vest fluttering in the wind, her team spread out behind her, nudging and pushing at her motionless body.

Sakura's heart fluttered: _I'm looking out of his eyes. I'm seeing what Sasuke's seeing._

 _But…_ Sakura's emerald orbs flickered to the dark-haired youth in the cell. _If Sasuke's here, with me, then who's out there?_

Sasuke's expression lit up with a sudden, wild fury. He leapt to his feet, a shadowy aura emanating past the bars toward Sakura, as he again approached the light.

"Sasuke!" yelled out Sakura once more, snagging a hand through the bars as he moved close. The hem of his cloak wavered just beyond her fingertips. She swore, feeling the tendons in his shoulder stretch right to that edge of sensation–

Sakura's fingers closed around fabric, and she wrenched it toward her with all of the leverage she had. The Uchiha staggered back, eyes flashing in her direction to discern what had grabbed his cloak, Sakura still invisible to him.

When he threw back his hand wide to reclaim balance, she snatched it in hers. At once, Sasuke's eyes fell on her, widening in confusion as she pulled him to the bars standing between them.

In a fluid motion, the scarlet of his kekkei genkai glowed and he wrenched his hand from her grasp, then snatched his arm through the bars toward her. His fingers closed around his throat before she could inhale, her feet dangling suddenly above the floor.

"S-Sas-uke–" she choked, clutching at his hand, his grip only tightening around her windpipe. He pulled her toward him, her cheek pressed against the steel bar nearest to her, the roughness of the metal slicing at her skin. His face hovered a breath from hers, rage snarling like a heat from his skin. In his eyes swirled a crazed, frantic fury that sent ice through her chest. He had every intention of killing her.

"Get out of my head!" he roared in her face, shaking her violently against the bars. She couldn't breathe – the strength beginning to fade from her arms as she struggled, her mind blurring numb.

"It's…me," she tried to murmur. "P-please st-op." Distrust burned in his eyes. _Who does he think I am?_

Her consciousness fading, she reached a trembling hand through the bars, and with two fingers extended, tapped his forehead.

At once, her body clattered to the floor in a heap, and she choked in the new air, her hands fluttering to her freed neck. She shot a glance up at Sasuke – his face contorting from shock to self-disgust. She rose to her feet, wavering for a moment before steadying herself against the wall.

"How?" he asked suddenly, eyes flickering from her face to her _real_ face, playing out before them in the brightness.

"Genjutsu, I think–" But before she could finish, Sasuke reared back and slid his hand through the air, past the bars, and into her chest.

"You're not safe here," Sasuke growled, jerking back his hand.

Instead of pain, Sakura felt something release inside of her, as if he'd untethered something keeping her locked in this strange illusion. At once, she felt herself flying back through the hallways, and with a jolt, her eyes opened.

* * *

Sakura nearly dropped to her knees at the surprise of all the sensations that rushed at her. The scream of flames and villagers, the smell of burning flesh and smoke, and the strangle of Sasuke's hands still around her throat – she snapped her eyes shut again in a futile attempt to get ahead of it all.

She wasn't sure what had just happened. Had she been in a genjutsu, or was it something else? She didn't have time to process it, nor the time to share the intel with her teammates. Everything was coming at her too fast. Hinata appeared by her side, touching her shoulder gently. Sakura sensed Suigetsu and Juugo's immense chakras closing in behind her, and finally opened her emerald hues.

Less than one-hundred yards ahead, her eyes zeroed in on Sasuke's form. He looked so similar to the man she'd just left behind in the illusion. Except, something was wrong with the real-world Sasuke. He was shaking in place, his face a shade too pale, his mouth hanging agape.

Suddenly he lurched forward, then back, his katana clattering to the ground at his feet. His face contorted with a cross of agony and intense effort, and his hands flew to his head, nails biting into the flesh around his temples as his eyes screwed shut. His mouth wrenched opened his mouth as if to shout somehting, then gritted down again. He collapsed to his knees, shaking violently as he roared something indiscernible. On his forehead, glowing ominously, were a series of written symbols, too far away for Sakura to quite make out from their position.

"Something's going on," whispered Hinata, taking a hesitant step forward as her silvery eyes widened, darting around the Uchiha's form. "I'm seeing– I'm seeing two distinct chakras around him."

Sakura whipped around, her eyes flashing up to Sasuke's face. She pictured him back in the illusion, smashing again and again against the brightness. _He must be getting through!_ The rosette kunoichi leapt forward.

"Now! Go!" she screamed back to her teammates, charging forward without another glance back. Now was their chance – Sasuke was fighting for this the opportunity, and they couldn't waste it.

Before they could get far, a flash of red slashed through their vision. A newcomer, face distorted by a mask, now stood over Sasuke, his body crackling with the remnants of some sort of crimson lightning jutsu. A black cloaked swirled around him, hood drawn over his head, yellow eyes flashing at the four shinobi now rushing at him.

"Don't you _fucking_ try it," Sakura screeched, hand flying to her weapons kit before she sent a volley of charged senbon hurtling toward this new opponent.

The figure knocked the weapons out of the air with a wave of a kunai, eyes narrowing. Then, in one fluid motion, the shinobi snatched his arm down and closed his grip around the struggling Uchiha's forearm. In another red flash of lightning, the two vanished. Just like that.

"No…" Sakura breathed, skidding to a stop just short of where Sasuke had just stood. Her shoulders trembled with shock. She shrieked and slammed her fist into the earth, chakra rippling through the ground before it burst and shattered into rubble around her.

Hinata appeared at her side in an instant, whirling this way and that as she desperately searched their perimeter.

"Nothing," she said quietly, after a time. "They're gone."

Sakura dropped to a crouch, running a gloved hand through her hair, struggling against the pressure that gathered at the corners of her jade hues. A drop of rain slid down collar bone, and she made no move to wipe it clear. Only when the drizzle had thickened to a full downpour did she dare glance up, the tears streaming down her cheeks indiscernible from the rain.

"Damn it," she swore up into the gray.

* * *

 _Sakura slipped her feet from her sandals and let them dangle over the edge of the deck, the grass swirling up to meet her toes. A warm breeze tugged at the hem of her dress and brushed past her cheek. She heard movement from behind her and turned._

 _Sasuke lay across the porch on his back, eyes closed, a serene expression on his face. His hand rested on his chest, his fingers tapping a tune that she wished she could hear. When he breathed, a few loose strands of his raven-black hair fluttered away from his face, revealing the sharp slash of his jawline._

 _Relaxing on the porch of his own home, his guard down and all of the adrenaline and focus and deadliness of battle put aside, he looked more like a child than he had in a long time. Sasuke always sped beyond his years, the trauma of his childhood forcing a quick maturity, but when you got right down to it, he was supremely young – barely pushing twenty – and it showed, in that moment._

 _A small smile spread across Sakura's lips, her cheeks glowing warm. Sasuke, as if in response, cracked open one eye, his charcoal gaze swiveling to meet her emerald one. She blanched, and looked quickly back to her feet, examining her pink nail polish._

 _"Something you need?" he intoned. She could feel his gaze against her back and shook her head, face flushed at being caught staring._

 _Her own gaze flickered up past Sasuke's yard to watch a sparrow fluttering to land on the statue in the park just beyond the fence. Itachi's statue. A frown brushed past her features until a low grumbling sound from behind her reeled in her attention once more._

 _"Are you hungry or something?" Sakura asked, swinging her legs around to lean back against one of the posts and get another good look at the Uchiha. She hugged her knees to herself, her cheek pressed against her thigh. Sasuke shrugged mildly without opening his eyes._

 _"Do you want me to grab you something from inside?" At this, he slid an eye open once more, blinking as if to gauge the seriousness of her proposal. She raised an eyebrow at the look he was giving her, holding his gaze before a smirk crossed his lips and he closed his eye again._

 _"I could eat," he responded finally._

 _Sakura chuckled under her breath and rose leisurely to her feet. Her back, stiff from sitting on the hardwood porch, crackled as she twisted it about. She stepped over Sasuke without too much difficulty, then pushed the sliding paper door open before slipping inside._

 _Sasuke's house hadn't been lived in for years, and its insides betrayed that fact. A film of dust covered what sparse furniture he had – only the essentials in each room – and cobwebs laced a few of the upper corners. No personal touches warmed up the walls, no photos or artwork, just the white paint and the dark wood trim. A staircase ascended into the unlit second floor._

 _A part of her wanted to explore, and another part of her felt terrified to. Was this the house Sasuke's parents had died in? Sakura wasn't sure she wanted to know, but felt the claw of curiosity at the back of her mind anyway._

 _She hurried across to the kitchen, passing the dining room on her way. A long table stared back at her, four chairs waiting empty at its side. Sakura felt a coldness spring through her chest, and moved on._

 _First, she checked the fridge and found it empty, as expected. Then she moved to the cupboards, foraging about for a while before coming up with an unopened box of rice crackers and a bag of dried mango. She moved next to another cabinet, now in search of a bowl, and stopped._

 _On one shelf, neat sets of white plates, bowls and mugs awaited her. However, on the shelf below, a single plate lay by itself. It was a thick, white ceramic plate with a child's painting on it, like from one of those you-paint-it-yourself children's birthday parties. Sakura reached out and picked it up, holding the piece delicately between her fingertips._

 _The drawing was of a small family, each member labeled in uneven handwriting. All of the stick figures had smiles that took up their whole faces, with colorful clothes and misshapen hands. In the middle stood "mom," with a long nest of black paint around her head for hair, and beside her was "dad," his face scrawled with gray squiggles that Sakura could only assume were wrinkles. On the left, slightly shorter than the parents, was "Itachi" with long ponytail. Finally, on the right, was a little boy with spikey hair labelled "me."_

 _Below the family, surrounded by decorative shuriken, kunai and a few random flames, wrote the final touch: "Merry Christmas. Love, Sasuke."_

 _Sakura's lip trembled as she carefully replaced the plate on the shelf. After grabbing a bowl, she closed it the cabinet, and leaned against the counter with an exhale. She closed her eyes, and touched her hand to her temple, lips set in a thin line._

 _Sasuke-kun._

 _Most days, when she looked at him, she didn't think about all of this. She didn't think or see all of the trauma he'd been through. She just saw her friend, and the person that'd she'd fallen for as a child, and all of the man that he'd become since then._

 _Did Sasuke think about it all? Did he find himself often dwelling in the deaths of his family, in the faults of his vengeance and the sacrifices of his elder brother? Were those events the lens through which he saw all things? Or were they flickers of his past, influencing his day-to-day more passively – always present, but perhaps not as fresh and as visceral?_

 _And was the plate from his childhood in his cabinet because he was sentimental and wanted to remember, or because that was simply where he kept the plates?_

 _Sakura shook her head and poured crackers into the bowl she'd retrieved, then topped it with a handful of mango slices before closing up the box and bag and padding back toward the porch. Outside, the sky had begun to wander from cerulean to turquoise, with faint hints of pink wandering about its edges._

 _When Sakura closed the screen door behind her, she found Sasuke fast asleep. His head had rolled to the side, arm splayed out to the side with his palm facing up, fingers slightly curled. His chest rose and fell with each slow breath, and the slightest of smiles had spread across the softness of his cheek._

 _"Sasuke-kun…" she muttered, marveling at the sight of him. She set down the bowl of snacks before turning inside to grab a blanket she had seen folded over one of the couches in the living room. She returned, shaking it out a few times over the lawn before gently pulling it over Sasuke's form. He shifted in his sleep, closing and reopening his mouth, but quieted down again._

 _Sakura moved to sit next to him, leaning back against the side of the house. She nibbled at a cracker, and grinned into the approaching evening. Perhaps it was selfish to think this way, but right then, in that moment, she had everything she'd ever wanted._

* * *

 **A/N**

This post is sponsored in part by BUTTER because I've eaten nothing but buttery yummy foods for the past five days and now I'm as round as the blueberry girl from the Willy Wonka movies. Weee~

It was brought to my attention that I really need to get involved on tumblr (thank you, silmaril-chan!) so I resurrected my old account and have started posting little SasuSaku sweet nothings. Definitely add me if you're feeling it, my username is **Indigo-Rainn**. I've been on a real AMV-watching bender lately, and I link most of 'em on there. :3

Please please please review and thank you so much for reading! Love you lovelies.

xoxo

Indigo


	5. Failure

**Chapter 5 – Failure**

* * *

The last expression Sasuke witnessed flying across Sakura's face as she was whisked away from the genjutsu was one of a sudden, palpable hurt. As if she actually wished to remain stuck in the infuriating internal prison, by his side, rather than return to her body. He shook his head warily as the kunoichi's image dissipated and flickered his charcoal eyes back to the view of the outside world.

Irritation stoked into hot rage as he imagined his captor, playing around with _his_ genjutsu without the proper knowledge or skill set to back it up. It was irresponsible at best, deadly at worst. Sasuke mused that that the person who had warped Sakura right in had done so without first creating an illusioned place to put her, which was amateur mistake. He could have tortured her, rendered her a useless asset to her team in no time at all, even killing her, without much effort. He hadn't done any of those things, which was rare stroke of luck.

In the real world, Sakura rose cautiously to her feet and tucked a lock of tousled, strawberry hair behind her ear, emerald hues flaring up to meet his. Her expression resonated with grit and resolve, cheeks rosy from the cold wind tugging at her the loose hem of her cloak. She darted forward and came hurtling toward him, the rest of her team in pursuit.

Sasuke felt agitation grip him as his body whipped around his katana, weaving it through the air before assuming an offensive position, locked on Sakura. Still suck in his genjutsu, he reared his fist back and smashed it into the light. A single crack tore up through the base of the image. He slammed his boot into it, and the crack lengthened. He hopped back a few steps, and charged with speed – his shoulder ramming into the crack with as much strength as he could manage.

At once, a web of cracks blossomed out from the centerline. Small shards began to tumble to the floor, and the sound of shattering glass rang encircled him. Sasuke smirked, and stepped through into the light.

His whole consciousness snapped into place. As if he had snapped on a glove he hadn't realized he could take off in the first place. He glanced down to his right hand and wiggled his fingers along the hilt of his blade. Although he sensed a strange resistance to his efforts, each finger moved as he urged them too. He tried to raise his arm overhead, to test the limits, but found the resistance strengthening against him. Like rushing water pulling and pushing at him, preventing anything beyond the focus of steadiness.

Sasuke felt the presence of another mind within the resistance – the mind of his captor, the man who had assumed control of his limbs. When he tried to take a step forward, this foe fought against the movement – the clash of wills electric in his veins, as if the very fibers of his muscles were splitting in different directions. His arm rippled with the pain and fatigue of it, the tendons in his elbow snagging and tearing. He roared, his kusanagi clattering onto the ground at his feet. His head felt as it if might split in two, and he clawed as his face as it to slice away the other mind battling for control.

Sasuke was distantly aware that he had fallen to his knees. How much time had passed? Every second felt agonizingly slow. Where were his comrades? He wanted them here, soon. A skilled medical specialist might be able to extract this poison from his veins.

He felt the warm touch of a hand on his arm and forced an eye open, recoiling when the masked face of a man he didn't recognize came into focused. Sasuke tried to activate his sharingan to assess the person's chakra, but found the visual jutsu horrifyingly beyond his reach. Yet, something about this man reminded Sasuke of the voice in the dark lab, and a sickening rage consumed him.

His eyes flickered to Sakura dashing toward him, struggling to unsheathe his red kekkei genkai from the depths of his eyes without luck. He turned his focus inward, clawing at his chakra stores as they skirted just beyond reach.

 _What the hell?!_

Then, in a sudden flash, red light consumed him – a teleportation jutsu. The last spark of an image, of the pink haired kunoichi wheeling toward him with her eyes brimming with horror, burned into his retina.

When the red dissolved into the air around him, Sasuke found himself crouched in a brightly lit room, fluorescents bearing down on him. He flashed his gaze around the room, taking quick stock before battling to his feet.

The Uchiha fury that swirled around him in a storm granted him a temporary advantage against whatever jutsu continued to resist his movements, every inch of his rage bent on destroying the pitiful excuse for a shinobi now standing before him. The masked man tiled his head, eyes glittering with rapt interest. His straight posture indicated that he didn't take the young Uchiha seriously enough to assume a defensive stance, and Sasuke wanted to take advantage of such arrogance.

Sasuke lurched forward, his movements somewhat more lethargic than normal but agile for most ninja's standards, mind flashing through the different taijutsus he had in his repertoire without the use of his chakra. He reached the shinobi in an instant and faked left before swinging a backhand at the man's jaw – connecting hard into the bone, before spinning out of reach and dropping into a crouch. He then swept a low kick into the man's ankle, tabling him onto his back.

The man rolled his head to the side and spat blood to the tiled floor of the lab, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His expression disinterested and unconcerned.

"You about done, Sasuke?" the man drawled, looking up at the raven-haired youth with a raised eyebrow. Sasuke smirked and lounged again, grabbing the man around the throat and slamming him into the nearest wall.

"What the hell did you do to me?" he snarled, fighting to keep his hand and arm from trembling. Sasuke could feel the fight from his inner opponent picking up steam, as much as he battled it down.

"I thought it was obvious," mocked the man. "You're my new toy. My puppet. Although I clearly didn't do a good enough job—you really shouldn't be able to do any of this... So fascinating."

Sasuke smashed the man into the wall again, holding him so close to himself that he could smell the man's putrid breath through the mask.

"I will kill you," hissed Sasuke under his breath, digging his nails into the thin skin of the man's neck. He could feel the pulse of his jugular beneath his thumb, ready to snap–

"I'll just stop you there," came a voice from behind him.

Sasuke felt white-hot electricity smash into him and staggered backward. The pain was blinding, but with his last surge of energy he lashed out at the masked man in front of his, his fist smashing into his cheek. Sasuke felt bones break beneath his knuckles before he fell back, his body crashing into the floor. Only as his unconsciousness swirled black around him, did the wrench of his failure rush up to meet him.

* * *

The two Leaf kunoichi sat with their backs to the fire place, mulling over their own disappointments in silence. Sakura clutched her knees to her chest, lips pressed to the top of her thigh, not bothering to brush away the locks of rose hair fell to block her darkened gaze from view.

Hinata skimmed nervously from her rosette teammate to the two males slumped on the other side of the room, muttering between themselves in lowered voices. Suigetsu absently dribbled over the straw of his water bottle as he spoke, radiating an uncharacteristic bitterness. Juugo, too, seemed disturbed – he'd insisted on bringing a sea tern in from outside, and the bird now plucked at the fabric of his cloak, twittering from the large man's shoulder.

A few hours had passed since Sasuke's disappearance with the mystery shinobi. After Suigetsu used one of his water-style jutsus to put out the fires, the villagers had cautiously returned, and one family had gone as far as to offer up a large suite in their inn as a thank you for scaring away the "bad man." Sakura hadn't the heart to explain how useless she and her team had really been in the stand-off, but took the gesture with gratitude. A roof over their head during the storm was a welcome respite.

"We need to form a plan," the kunoichi muttered finally, stretching her legs out across the rug as she flashed glances at her teammates. Hinata nodded quietly, silver eyes darting to watch as the boys stood in unison to join them at the fire. Suigetsu dropped into a cross-legged position in front of them, his face aglow in firelight, while Juugo took his time, settling against the wall, his bird moving to stand on his knee. He petted it with a finger absently.

"Ok," muttered Sakura, eying the bird before slowly moving into a description of the genjutsu she'd been trapped in. The team leaned in, listening intently while Hinata passed around a bag of dried fruit from her bag. When Sakura finally finished her story, the Hyuuga prodigy was the first to speak.

"This is all quite strange," she said, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "But your theory of a controlling agent or person matches with the chakras I saw." She stumbled her words, eyes flitting over Sakura.

Despite her personal connection to the case, Sakura was the mission's leader, and Hinata didn't want to further aggravate the kunoichi after the day they'd been through. She continued: "Like I said, there were two distinct presences. Sasuke's chakra, and another that I didn't recognize, also within him. Not only that, but Sasuke's chakra stores seemed… bottled up. Like he was nearly at full capacity chakra-wise, but it was condensed down to his main chakra points and sealed there. It wasn't spilling out everywhere, like it would normally, and I think that made for the physical struggle we witnessed."

"That sounds a lot like what that Hyuuga technique does to a person's chakra points, no?" intoned Suigetsu suddenly. The observation was surprising, given his disconnected expression and the focus with which he'd been scratching at the wood floor with one of his long fingernails.

"Y-yes, very similar," agreed Hinata, her expression tightening in thought. "So, we can agree there are two things going on: physical control of his body, as well as a containment of his chakra. I'd go one step further to say they're connected, so that they're most likely weakening him, and blocking his chakra, to prevent him from regaining control."

The team nodded solemnly.

"There is one positive here," said Sakura slowly, raising a finger. "The technique, however it works, isn't perfect. Sasuke broke through it, and he will probably again, until they're able to fine tune the jutsu. So, at least for the time being, we probably won't have to actually fight him, which is good."

She didn't need to finish the other half of the thought. Because despite the strength of the four-man team, none of them quite occupied the same plane as the Uchiha prodigy. If he were to decide they were his enemies, he could take them down without batting an eye. Only Naruto could go head-to-head with Sasuke and, even then, it wouldn't end well for either of them. So, ideally, Sakura wanted to extract Sasuke without coming to blows. She wanted to get him out unscathed.

"Where do we start?" mumbled Juugo, eyes wide. The crazed expression on his face brought a shiver through Sakura's shoulder blades.

"Is the island still a viable option?" she asked. Juugo had noticed a strange fluctuation in bird migrations off the coast, along a series of islands. It wasn't much to go off of, but would serve as a place to start. Juugo nodded slowly.

She continued: "How do we get there?

"We can walk, but we risk arriving low on chakra, and we don't know what we'll face on the other side. Not to mention the return journey," offered Hinata.

"I've got us a ride," said Suigetsu abruptly, raising his hands with a toothy grin. His purple eyes gleamed. "I have a summon. Don't y'all worry."

"A summon?" asked Sakura, her expression incredulous. She wasn't in the mood for his games.

"It's a surprise, but she can take us wherever we need to go by sea," explained Suigetsu with a shrug before pulling himself warily to his feet. He tapped a large summoning scroll tucked into the kit at his hip.

"Which room is mine?" he then asked, his tone ringing with a joking entitlement as he pointed between the two doors leaving the main room of the suite.

"Whichever. Hinata and I will sleep in here, you and Juugo take the beds," said Sakura. The silver-haired nin shrugged and entered the nearest room, closing the door behind himself. Juugo lumbered to the other, pausing before shutting himself in.

"I'm sorry that we failed you today, Sakura-san," he said quietly, eyes on the floor. "Tomorrow is a new day." With that, he disappeared into the darkened bedroom and closed the door.

The kunoichi lay out their sleeping mats and blankets in front of the fireplace, where the rug offered a small amount of protection from the hardwood floor. Sakura crawled into her nest first, stripping off her headband and gloves and layers into a pile beside her as she went. Hinata choose a more methodical approach, folding her jacket and cloak in a delicate stack beside the fire.

Sakura glanced up suddenly to see the dark-haired kunoichi twisting the silver band that glittered on her ring finger. A small smile fledged across her face.

"Do you two have a date picked out?" she asked, her voice feeling louder than she expected. Hinata's white eyes flickered up nervously to catch her gaze as she shoved her hand in her pocket.

"N-no, not yet," she said, her porcelain face flushed pink. "Naruto-kun's been so busy. Maybe in the summer, next year." She bit her lip, and folded herself into her blankets, rolling onto her side to look at Sakura.

"I can't wait," glowed the pinkette, wiggling beneath her blanket. "You're going to be a beautiful bride. And Naruto… I don't think I've ever seen him in a suit."

Hinata's laugh tinkled, and she bobbed her head in agreement. She then rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. The fire behind her head cast auburn shadows dancing across the beams. Outside, a gale flung itself against the shutters, and the building's framed whined in discomfort.

"It's strange, sometimes," murmured Hinata. "Being with someone who's known for all this… power. He's always so gentle around me, and goofing around. The contrast makes it… hard, sometimes. Like I don't know which one is the real him, and I don't want to…change him, just so that we can be together…. I feel like you might understand what I'm trying to say, better than most."

Sakura nodded and pressed the flesh of her palms to her eyes.

"Yeah... I understand," she said quietly. "But, in Naruto's case, the two are tied together… If it weren't for his gentleness, he wouldn't have all of that strength and power he has today. People are drawn to him, for his kindness and his passion, and those relationships are what drive him forward. I'm not sure he would have reached this level if he didn't have friends and loved ones to fight for and protect, and you're an essential part of that."

Hinata considered this, her lips pursed before a grin crept across her face.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan," she breathed. "But… What about Sasuke? Are you two…?"

Sakura sighed and laced her hands on top of the blanket over her chest.

"I'm not really sure," she said at last. "He's only visited the village three times over the past few years – too brief to know, really, one way or another."

"Oh," exclaimed Hinata, embarrassment creeping into her features. "I'm sorry, I thought you two were–"

"No, no, I think we _are_ , we've just never really… talked about it. Except this one time, that I'm not sure counts…" Sakura trailed off. Hinata raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Remember that time this fall when all of the guys in our class went out? Like for a guy's night?" asked Sakura. At this, Hinata snorted, her laughter ringing through the empty room. "Y-yes, of course! Naruto was sick all night..."

Sakura grinned to herself. She loved retelling this story.

* * *

 _Sakura flipped through her medical reports, running the numbers in her head for the fourth time as she nibbled the top of her pen. She walked as she read, striding down the hallway at a comfortable pace, until she reached her destination and rapped her knuckles on the door without looking up._

" _Come in, if you must," sighed the voice on the other side. She let herself in, closing the door behind her as she surveyed the Hokage's office dubiously._

 _Kakashi slumped in his seat, his cheek resting on one the summit of one of the many stacks of papers covering the surface of his desk. The trashcan to his side towered with empty take-out boxes, and Naruto plopped cross-legged on the floor in the corner, his expression screwed up in concentration as he poured himself over a scroll at his feet._

" _You two are quite the sight," observed Sakura, stepping over books and other mountains of important-looking documents as she made her way to her teammates. She rapped Kakashi in the forehead with the folder in her hand._

" _Finalized notes from our trial, Rokudaime," she said, in her most professional tone. "A success, by all accounts. We would like your permission to practice organ regeneration with Hashirama's cells beyond our trial candidates and offer it to all eligible patients as soon as possible."_

 _Kakashi nodded without lifting his head._

" _I GOT IT!" shouted Naruto suddenly, leaping to his feet as he waved the scroll over his head. "I cracked it."_

 _At this, Kakashi opened his eye and gave his blonde student a hardened stare. "That code should have taken you minutes to read – not hours, Naruto."_

" _Lighten up, Kakashi-sensei," rebuked the blonde shinobi, sticking his tongue out. "If the teme's handwriting weren't so terrible, it would have taken no time at all!"_

 _With that, Naruto clambered out the window, waved goodbye to Sakura, and disappeared to the next rooftop. Kakashi sighed and closed his eye again._

" _That note is from Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked tentatively, eyeing the scroll that Naruto had left in a heap on the floor. The gray-haired nin nodded solemnly._

" _Sasuke has a mission in the north which requires a resupply, so he should be here for a day or two. I believe Naruto has monopolized him this evening for a 'boy's night,'" said Kakashi, shrugging passively. Sakura pursed her lips and folded her arms over her chest._

" _Mad that you didn't get an invite, are we?" he asked, eying her stance._

" _Of –of course not!" she snapped. "Why would I want to join in something so stupid?" She slapped her folder onto his desk and stomped out without another world. Behind her, Kakashi chuckled to himself._

" _Never change, eh, Sakura?" he called out as she closed the door._

" _Baka," she hissed to herself as she exited the building. She meandered her way home through the softening light, her expression falling gradually from resentful to bitter to dejected. She stopped briefly at a small supermarket, eyeing the bins of fresh produce before ultimately leaving with a ready-make bag of arugula salad and a bargain-bin bottle of red._

 _Sakura swung the bag as she walked, wary of the discontent bubbling up in her chest. She wanted to see Sasuke – the desire burned stronger than she remembered, fueled by the last encounter and the time apart since then. He'd departed so quickly after that, leaving an ache that had only deepened during the many months since._

 _She couldn't help but feel his return, and not coming immediately to see her, as a rejection. Had she done something wrong? Should she not have held him so close, that evening? Where did they stand?_

 _Sakura shook her head, cursing under her breath as she stumbled upon her own building. She climbed the stairs to her apartment in a trance and plopped herself on the couch, kicking off her sandals in a pile as she wormed her way into the cushions._

 _After a few minutes, her phone rang in the kitchen, and she threw a pillow in that direction._

" _No…" she grumbled at it, as if that might make the noise stop. When it didn't, Sakura pulled herself out of the couch, wrapped herself in one of her throw blankets, and yanked the phone from its hook. Immediately, she held the phone away from her here as a high-pitched screech came through from the other line._

" _What the flying fuck is 'boy's night'?" screamed Ino into her ear. "I mean, as if there isn't enough sexist shit going on around here with everyone expecting that I'm just going to lay down my kunai and be a baby-making machine over here for the rest of my life, but excluding me from my favorite pastime, my real skill in life – drinking – is a step too far. I am fucking offended."_

" _Ino, we have a girl's night practically every week," laughed Sakura. "Don't you think that's a little far? Also, when you say 'everyone,' don't you really mean Sai?"_

 _Ino had recently thrown a fit earlier that week when Sai said that they should have children, if they were to get married. The blond kunoichi wasn't quite ready to settle down . Sometimes, Sakura wondered if Ino was just looking for something to fight about, and Sai's poor social skills and strange sense of humor made him an easy scapegoat._

" _Whatever, boys are always invited to girl's night. They just never come."_

" _Shikamaru came last week," Sakura pointed out._

" _Yeah, but just to grab Temari…" fenced Ino, moving something around in the background._

" _Is Sai at boy's night, then?" asked Sakura after a pause. She imagined the pale artist-nin and Sasuke meeting each other and shook her head._

" _Unfortunately," muttered the blonde kunoichi. "He'll probably come back drunk as a dog. Such a pain. Anyway, thank you for the vent, Sakura-chan. I've got food in the oven for my own loner's night, but I'll catch you tomorrow."_

" _Goodnight, Ino-chan," chuckled Sakura into the phone, hanging it up gently. She went to her room to change into pajamas, and set to reading a book on the couch. At some point, she fixed herself her dinner, ate it, and dozed off with the book on her chest._

 _Suddenly, noise from outside lifted her from sleep. She sat bolt upright, eyes darting to the clock on her wall: it was 2:00 am. Someone was yelling outside. Sakura toed her feet into her slippers and slipped on a robe, peaking outside her front door._

 _In the middle of the street, three floors below, stood Shikamaru, his hands on his hips, staring gravely at something behind him, with Chouji and Rock beside him, talking in loud voices. Sakura made her way to the road._

" _What the hell is going on, Shika?" she asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes with the back of her hand. The dark-haired nin whirled, blinking in surprise at her sudden appearance, then grinned widely. The three men smelled strongly of tequila._

" _Sakuura! Hello!" he exclaimed, coming in and squeezing her a hug. It was a strange show of affection for the usually-mellow shinobi. He straightened up and pointed animatedly down the street. "I was delivering a few people to you, but they didn't quite make it this far."_

 _Sakura peered down the street in the direction of his gesture and saw a flash of orange as Naruto leapt out of an alleywaye, yelling and swinging his arms over his head like a buffoon._

" _I did not!" he sung over his shoulder into the alley, twirling on the tip of his sandal before seating himself in the middle of the street. "Nope! Not me! Definitely not!" Even at a distance, Sakura could see his grin._

 _Sasuke emerged from the shadows behind him, leaning against the wall of the building nearest them to steady himself._

" _You're a joke, Naruto," he intoned hotly. He lurched off of the wall and gave the blonde shinobi a good kick in the ribs. Naruto tumbled to his other side, laughing hysterically before grabbing his dark-haired friend around the calf and wrenching his weight out from under him. Sasuke went down in a heap and made no move to get up. Sakura heard him swearing from where she stood._

" _I beat you, Sasuke, don't you remember?" Naruto purred, his grin so wide it took up the entirety of his whiskered face. "Can't take that back. Not ever! Nope."_

 _The string of slurred words earned him a jab in the cheek from Sasuke's closed fist. Naruto hollered and bowled into the dark-haired friend, and the two fell over themselves in a tousled mess – growling and punching and getting nowhere._

" _What on earth did you give them?" whispered Sakura to Shikamaru, who waved his hands in the hair._

" _Hey now, I had nothing to do with this. The night was going fine until Naruto spiked Sasuke's drink with something… He felt so bad about it after that he chugged all of this liquor so that the two of them could be on the same level," he explained with an irritated shrug. "And now they're fighting, like idiots. Such a drag."_

 _Sasuke was on his feet now, wavering slightly, while Naruto couldn't seem to get up. After a moment of watching the blonde struggle, the dark-haired youth extended a hand and yanked the other to his feet._

" _I didn't need your help, teme!" shouted Naruto, stumbling after Sasuke with a feeble fist raised. He swung at the back of his head and missed, and Sasuke didn't seem to notice. His obsidian eyes had connected with Sakura's, his expression of poorly-veiled surprise._

" _Well, they're your problem now, Sakura-chan! Have a good night!" said Shikamaru quickly, saluting her before taking off at a quick pace in the opposite direction. Chouji and Rock Lee followed suit._

 _The raven-haired shinobi stopped just short of Sakura, his dark hues flickering about her robed form. Sasuke wore the clothes that he'd evidently been travelling in, the dark fabric wrinkled and ripped in spots, his flushed cheeks and glazed eyes betrayed the liquor in his belly. Naruto abruptly draped himself over Sasuke's shoulder, mumbling merrily._

" _Sakura-chan…" he drooled. "I'm very sorry… I love you both, but I told Hinata I'd be home by ten… and I think I'm going to make it if I hurry… good night…"_

 _With that, Naruto stumbled off down the street with a wave – his sense of time slightly off, but his resolve as strong as ever._

 _Sasuke watched him go with an irritated expression, his dark gaze darting back to capture Sakura's emerald one. A breeze ruffled the hem of her robe and she clutched it, a small shiver passing through her spine. She wasn't certain what to do now._

" _It's… good to see you," she said quietly, eyes dropping to her hands, clutching at the fabric of her clothing. He tilted his head slightly, his dark hair sliding to the side to reveal his single, violet eye._

" _Yeah," he said. He slid his hands in his pockets. Then, after a moment: "I should go."_

 _Sakura reached out and snatched her hand around his wrist as he turned away. His eyes slid around to hold hers again._

" _No," she said quietly, her eyes glittering. "You shouldn't."_

 _Sakura spun on her heels and pulled him toward the stairs. Sasuke didn't fight it, although he was slow moving, especially on the stairs._

" _Are you taking advantage of me?" he hummed when she looked back to mark his progress, a quiet smirk adorning his features. He leaned on the railing and took another step up, concentrating on the movements as if he were performing something quite complicated._

" _W-what? No, stop it," she stammered, face flushing red. She held the door open as he waltzed into her place._

" _Then, what is it?" he asked as Sakura closed the door behind herself. She pointed to the couch, and shooed him in that direction._

" _I'm not going to let you leave, first thing in the morning, without setting some things straight," she told him coolly. She poured a large glass of water and handed it to the raven-haired shinobi, who watched her with interest. He took it with surprise, as if unsure what to do with it._

" _Drink!" she instructed. "And go sit!" He did as he was told and lowered himself onto the sofa, sipping on the water with an expectant expression._

 _She sat on the other end of the couch, crossing her legs under herself with a blanket over her shoulders. She watched the young Uchiha drink his water, eyebrow raised. Any semblance of his usual calm, collected demeanor had been thrown out the window. The more he sat there, the more obvious it became that he was very, very drunk._

" _What on earth did Naruto give you?" Sakura murmured Sasuke shrugged, not seeming particularly interested in that line of thought. When he finished his water, he placed the empty glass on the coffee table carefully, and stretched out his legs beside it._

 _"What do we need to set straight?" he asked, clearly pleased with himself. He rolled his head in her direction so that she could see her reflection swimming in his large, dark eyes._

 _Her train of thought vanished as her cheeks grew hot. Her lips parted as if to speak, but she snapped them closed again._

" _Me and you," she said slowly, tearing her gaze away from his and exhaling shakily. "I–I don't want to be another one of the women in your life… I do not want to sit around and wait for you here while you travel around the world, especially if… that's not… what you want, also." She took a deep breath in. He blinked._

" _Is there a question?" Sasuke intoned, his expression unchanged._

" _D-don't be rude!" burst Sakura. She jabbed him hard in the shoulder, but when she pulled back, she saw that he was smirking at her._

 _"Relax, Sakura," he said quietly, eyes fluttering closed as sleep moved to overtake him. "It's just you."_

* * *

 **A/N**

A long chapter for your Friday night! Enjoy enjoy. :3 This is the last big ~*flashback chapter*~ before we launch into a whole lot of action. May the fluff serve you well in these future endeavors.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and a happy new years! On the 1st, I have plans to try my first hike since my accident in 2015 – I think my knee is (finally) ready! Wish me luck, I'm really nervous but also very excited to get back out there.

Thank you for the read, lovelies!

xoxo

Indigo


	6. Breathe

**Keep Me Close ::.**

 **Chapter 6 – Breathe**

* * *

The rosette kunoichi dipped her fingers through her strands of rose-blond hair and examined the beads of mist that came away in her palm. The thin skin of her cheek felt damp to the touch, her clothes clinging to her curves with moisture as she widened her stance. Ocean water rushed past her ankles, spraying salt up past her knees, and she shot a glance down to note the fluttering emerald of chakra she had infused to her boots. As if in response, the cloudy gray surface beneath her shuddered and slide deeper beneath the oncoming ways, strengthening the current of water that tore at her shins. Sakura grit her teeth, eying Hinata and Juugo beside her, who seemed equally uneasy as they fought to maintain balance.

Sakura hadn't quite grown used to riding a _shark_. Of the team, only Suigetsu appeared comfortable, perched atop the dorsal fin behind them as it sliced through the sea without pause. The massive creature dove a little deeper, the waves breaking past the rest of the team's waists while the white-haired shinobi howled into the spray. Joy glimmered in his violet hues, an unapologetic grin spread wide across the hooks of his teeth.

The pinkette shot him a look as a particularly tall roller crested against her belly, knocking her back a few paces.

"Hey, Isuzu, you would mind…?" stammered Suigetsu at once, running a hand affectionately along the length of the shark's dorsal fan. A deep gurgle rumbled through the creature beneath their feet as she surfaced again, the salty surf receding along the sides of her steely hide. The tops of her gills fluttered open and closed in the air, and Sakura could just make out the two black eyes scrutinizing them from beneath the surface, a glimmer of distaste evident even at a distance.

The kunoichi smirked to herself, unsurprised at the tense relationship between the shinobi and his summoning creature. She made a mental note to mention it to Katsuyu, the next time the two of them met. The gentle slug spirit served as Sakura's friend and trusted ally, and she enjoyed the time they spent together. Meanwhile, the shark spirit ferrying them across the ocean clearly seethed over the unwarranted annoyances brought to her by the white-haired summoner. She shook her head, and threw a glance at over the gray scape rolling past her.

The ocean spread out around them in all directions, its spray tracing salty white lines on each of the shinobi's skin. As the storm had moved inland, the surf beyond shore leveled out, the waves tall and looming but without the same violence from the previous day, as if it were taking a moment to breathe and recuperate. The water itself swirled in tones of grays and frothy whites, reflecting the overcast sky back to it.

A sudden muffled sound reverberating from within the she-shark beneath them brought Sakura's attention to Suigetsu, who's brow knitted together in concentration as he listened.

"Land ho!" he called out with a toothy salute, his eyes snapping open. "We're getting close!"

Sure enough, a few minutes later, a dark line nudged up on the farthest horizon. As the hour ticked along, a string of islands came into view – Sakura counted five, lined up like uneven gemstones. A gull that had taken refuge on Juugo's shoulder fluttered up into the sky, obscuring Sakura's view for a moment, its shrill call stirring with the current of waves around them.

"It's the most northern island," said the berserker calmly, pointing to the silhouette. The gull overhead joined an air current and took off toward it. The shark altered her course, angling toward the island with a renewed pace.

"What's our plan, Sakura-san?" queried Hinata, her silvery hues searching her teammate's viridians. Sakura readjusted her gloves, tugging on the charcoal fabric and chewed on the inside of her lip. She turned back toward Suitgetsu, intending to have him ask Isuzu a question.

 _Cut out the middle man_ , echoed a sudden voice in the kunoichi's head. _Suigetsu is as stupid as he is reckless._

Sakura's jaw slackened at the raw energy of the shark's voice, forcing itself into her mind and pushing against its boundaries with a rough acuteness. She dug her nails into her forehead, screwing her eyes shut as she fought to stay standing and listen as the voice continued:

 _There is a sheltered cove on the western shore. An easy landing, but would be expected. I suggest the spit on the south. The tide is low, you should be able to wade to shore._

Sakura nodded, and relayed what the animal had said to her teammates. Suigetsu cursed a series of expletives at being cut out of the communication, to which his teammates turned to ignore him. He wailed indignantly for a little while longer before petering out into dejected mutterings. Soon thereafter, Juugo's gull wandered toward them on another errant breeze, landing carefully atop the man's auburn locks with a flutter of feathers.

"Near the beach, there's an entrance," conveyed Juugo evenly before casting the bird into the wind again with a flash of his arm. He watched the creature teeter from wing to wing with a look of detached longing, golden hues clouding with flecks of gray as his jaw set his mouth in a firm line. Sakura tore her gaze away, discomfort flaring in her chest as if she had witnessed something private.

The island loomed before them like a sparse rock jutting up from the sea, small and jagged and weathered, no more than a mile from tip to tail. No life grew among the blackened boulder and sand beyond the dune grass that wavered and whispered against the barrage of wind. Sakura shuddered, shrugging her cloak tightly against her neck to keep out the lash of cold.

To maintain the semblance of surprise, the team took a wide girth around the cove, its half-moon waters black and flecked with floating ice that had fragmented from the frozen shore. Sakura suspected that a layer of sand hid beneath that ice, although she couldn't quite make it out as she scanned for signs of human inhabitance.

The shark angled toward a jut of black rocks around the opposite side of the island and deposited them neatly amongst a cluster of tidepools before dipping back into the depths. The four some stood, each on their own rock, and exchanged looks that roiled with nervous anticipation. Even Juugo, whose level expressions rivaled even Sasuke's, had his brows knit together in a look of uncertainty, golden eyes flaring between his teammates.

At once, Sakura shook off the anxieties creeping through her chest and leaped toward shore, hopping from rock to rock to conserve her chakra minutely. Hinata followed her lead while Juugo charged up the soles of his boots and charged across the water. Suigetsu dove into the water itself, his body dissolving into its liquid form spare the top half of his head, which remained above the water. He surged forward with a toothy smirk until he saw that his teammates had gathered safely on shore, and then he dove completely to meet up with them separately in the cove.

The three-remaining shinobi crept along the flank of the island, its slope slanting up and away from them toward the summit. They moved silently, with Hinata and her Byakugan leading the way, Sakura tucked in behind her, and Juugo scanning at their back. Beyond the skitter of hermit grabs and the snarl of waves and wind, the island threw no sounds or movements toward them.

At last, the team reached the edge of the inlet, and the threesome folded themselves against the side of a boulder, leaving Hinata to peer out, her silvery eyes darting over the frozen beach. After a minute, she retracted and pressed herself alongside her teammates, capturing each of their gazes. The muscles framing her eyes slackened as she parted her lips to speak.

"There is an entrance – heavy set double doors – about two o'clock. Half way down the beach, set into the cliff, but hidden by a cloaking jutsu," breathed Hinata, eyes flickering from Sakura's to Juugo's. She inhaled sharply. "I detected many chakra signatures just inside the doorway."

Her eyes wandered up to meet Sakura's as the pinkette's moves to speak: "And Sasuke?" The raven-haired kunoichi shifted, and shook her head carefully.

"No, I can't detect anything from out here. We need to get inside," Hinata answered. The kunoichi glanced at Juugo, and a knowing grin twisted across Sakura's features.

"We need to draw them out. Juugo?"

The fiery-haired man nodded slowly, and the two kunoichi took off toward the slope above them, scrambling over the rocks and bounding along their fracturing edges to get above the door. Juugo watched them go, then rounded the boulder toward the beach, eyeing the doorway intently. His skin beginning to bubble and froth, his mouth hanging open as his curse mark clawed at his skin and consumed his limbs. A maniacal cackle gurgled past his teeth as he slumped to all-fours and barreled toward the double doors like a boar. Sakura and Hinata ducked behind a boulder just above the entrance, watching in discomfort as the berserker nin hollered his way across the icy expanse.

"This better work," muttered the rosette through gritted teeth, fingering the edges of a shuriken she had drawn without realizing. Hinata tipped her chin in agreement.

Juugo reached the door and smashed into it with his fists. Although the deformed jutsu had only taken over half of his physical body, the glassy, crazed look in his eyes gave no indication of humanity, and both kunoichi shared the concern that if he were to spot them, he wouldn't know them friend from foe.

"Let–me-i _nnn_!" howled the Sound shinobi, his words lilting with a sing-song enjoyment that triggered goosebumps. At once, the doors burst open and the dark-skinned nin hopped back a few paces, a growl rippling through his body as he lowered into a crouch. His eyes flicked back and forth as a swarm of armored guards poured onto the ice, his curse mark beginning to swell past his meridian. Sakura's eyes darted from each of his opponents – the crudeness of their weapons and the way each of their chakra spilled uncontrollably beyond their forms indicated they were low-level shinobi at best. Not to be taken lightly, especially given their numbers, but something that the Taka twosome would be able to hand without pause.

Juugo continued to back away toward the water while the guards fanned out in an attack formation in pursuit. As the gap between the guards and the door widened, Sakura shot a glance to Hinata for approval, watching intently as white eyes darted to take it all in.

"There are two more guards inside, but they don't appear to be moving. Let's go!" hissed the dark-haired kunoichi.

With that, the kunoichi launched from the hiding space to the ground below, with Sakura just behind, and the two slipped easily into the darkened entrance. The pinkette tossed a glance over her shoulder just as Suigetsu's form emerged from the water behind Juugo, dripping and gleaming, while the blade of Isuzu's dorsal fin sliced through the bay at his back.

She grinned. The two would undoubtedly join them sooner rather than later.

A string of lanterns fixed to the walls lit the entrance to the hideout, the low ceiling cramped and beading with moisture. Noise ahead alerted to the approach of two samurai, standing with broad swords raised. At once the men charged forward, and the women rose to meet them. Sakura claimed the opponent to their left, spinning swiftly to the side to avoid the bite of steel before slamming a charged backhad just below the man's floating ribs, sending him sailing into the advancing form of his counterpart.

The two men crumpled into a heap against the wall, where Hinata dealt them a series of stabs to their pressure-points so that they would not follow.

The raven-haired nodded and stepped over their forms, a small smile sweeping up across her lips while her eyes glittered with unmasked satisfaction. Sakura mirrored the expression, and together they continued their charge down the passageway.

Soon, they reached where the samurai had been stationed at the top of an unlit stairwell coiling out of sight. Sakura's viridians flittering to Hinata, who's kekkei genkai had already activated as she peered into the void.

"There's another floor below us. Quite a few signatures there…" she trailed off in concentration. "I don't detect Sasuke-kun, but there is something… an aura, that could be him. I need to get closer." The dark-haired woman took off down the stairs, leaving Sakura to hurry after in her wake. After a held-breath descent, they reached a door without a handle that barred their way. Sakura put up a gloved hand, ushered Hinata back a few stairs behind her, before rushing forward with her first raised.

"Shannaro!" she screeched, twisting her body around and slamming her closed fist into the steel with a blast of chakra. The metal crumpled like paper beneath the impact and blew back, smashing into the wall beyond it. Sakura ducked through the opening, Hinata at her back.

The new hallway bit at their irises with blinding fluorescents, and Sakura flashed up a hand to shield her emeralds from view as they adjusted. They stood in the middle of what looked like a hospital hallway, each wall lined with doors marked by numbers and letters. Crisp white paint covered every surface – the paper-smooth walls and ceilings, the doors, even the linoleum floor. The sickly scent of sterilization hung in the stagnancy around them.

Footsteps echoed toward them as armored guards appeared from both sides of the hallway. Hinata fell into step behind the pinkette, and the two kunoichi assumed defensive stances back-to-back. Sakura felt the tickle of Hinata's locks against her elbow and found a small smile stretching her cheeks – there was something wonderfully satisfying about fighting in step with another kunoichi.

As the leaders from each group charged at once, the women locked arms, and Sakura flipped up and over the dark-haired kunoichi in an arc, swiveling mid-air to take out three guards at once with a swift crunch of her boot. She landed in a crouch, light on her feet as electric-blue chakra swirled along her raised fist. Her eyes flashed up to meet those of the nearest opponent, and, in a flicker, she was upon him, smashing her chakra into the linoleum floor at his feet so that it erupted toward him and his counterparts in a deafening crash. The guards lay in a fuddled pile on the floor, groaning and shifting uselessly.

Sakura whipped around, observing as Hinata twirled between two men in an untraceable blur, hands darting out before she spun to a stop, a trail of unconsciousness guards in her wake. She threw a glance over her shoulder, raven locks swirling around her waist as a gentle smile brushed her cheeks.

"This way, Sakura-chan," she called, her voice soft. The two women took off again. Each room they passed they checked, each one an empty laboratory without anything worth noting, and each time they continued.

They rounded another corner, and skidded to a halt. A lengthy shinobi stood waiting at the end of the hallway, a dark cloak gathered about his boots. Even without his mask, the golden sweep of hair atop his head and the glittering, auburn eyes gave him away as Sasuke's captor. Sakura recognized him from the village, and felt her stomach coil as a sneer erupted across his lips.

"You've arrived!" he announced, sweeping his arms wide in a mocking bow. "It's about time. _Sasuke-kun_ will be so pleased."

Rage boiled over past Sakura's chest, and her high cheekbones flared scarlet with the effort it took to remain in place. She snapped her small fingers into fists, her cerulean aura lancing down her forearms in preparation. She wanted to _break_ him.

Footsteps rang behind her and she flickered a glance back as more guards appeared in their sted. Hinata spun to take them, her shoulder blades grazing Sakura's.

"I've got these guys, if you can take out that asshole out," breathed Hinata. Sakura blinked back her surprise and nodded, an almost-chuckle huffing from her lips. She'd never heard the Hyuuga girl swear before.

Sakura whipped back to her own opponent, studying his figure intently. His chakra seemed well-honed, compacted into his frame in a condensed, writhing stream. He had a katana strapped to his hip, and more weapons hidden away in the kit at his thigh.

A smirk graced her lips.

His chakra paled in comparison to that of Sasuke – that much even she knew. The young Uchiha would never lose to someone of his stature, let alone be captured and held against his will. This golden-hair _buffoon_ must have won merely by the tact in his ambush, not by strength or skill. Imagining the furious revenge that Sasuke would surely want to take out upon this criminal-ninonce this was all over brought a glint to Sakura's eye.

She rushed forward, ducking his blade as he whipped it out between them, and swung at his head. He parried, deflecting her blow against his shoulder, face gritting with pain for a moment before he brandished the weapon once more.

Sakura flipped back to avoid the attack and create space, then bounced from the balls of her feet up and charged forward with her fist raised. He dodged narrowly, slicing up across her shoulder with the katana, before she dropped to a crouch and swung her leg into his calves, tabling him onto his back with a heavy fall that expelled the air from his lungs. His katana clattered to the linoleum at his side, its echoes ringing around them.

Before she could move to overtake him, the man hopped to his feet and skirted a few yards back. His hands flipped through a series of signs, and Sakura lowered her stance to prepare for an onslaught. Blood flooded from the wound to her shoulder, gathering around her collarbone before streaming down the pale skin of her chest.

She heard the _tap-tap-tap_ of footfall behind her, and registered the chakras of Suigetsu and Hinata approaching. At once, her golden-haired opponent's stance loosened, and straightened up with an expression of disinterest that boiled Sakura's blood. She tightened her grip within her gloves.

"It seems you have me beat, Sakura-san," hummed the man lightly, tapping his forehead in a mock salute. "Until next time."

With a crackling red flash, the man vanished into the air, just as he had in the village. Sakura pressed a hand to her wound and cursed, screwing her eyes shut in an attempt to quell the rage. She wanted to tear that man limb from limb, and couldn't bear the thought of him roaming free. He needed to pay for his crimes.

However, her mission guidelines had been simple: she and her team were to retrieve the captured Uchiha Sasuke, and nothing more. With a snap, Sakura rounded on her teammates, her viridians alighting on the Hyuuga kunoichi's expression of relief, kindling with a strange glittering. _She knew something._

"Show me," barked Sakura. At once, they were sprinting after the dark-haired kunoichi down the hallways, passing room after room until, at last, Hinata zeroed in on one laboratory and kicked open the doorway.

The florescent lighting screamed past Sakura's irises, blinding her temporarily. She forced her way through it, scanning the room frantically. A pit opened up in her stomach, for everything appeared the same as every other room they'd passed – white cabinets lined the walls, with linoleum tiles stitching across the floor with a smell of toxic sterility. Mix-matched assortment of medical tools stared back at her on almost every surface, along with a single computer whose screen whirred through a series of neon-green numbers.

In the middle of the room stood an empty operating table, its metal surface reflecting their faces back at them. Sakura rounded on Hinata, eyes widening as she took in the kunoichi's outstretched hand, pointing across the room.

In the corner of the lab, built into the wall and stretching from floor to ceiling, towered a metal tank. A loud whirring sounded rumbled from within the equipment's walls, and a number of wires and tubes extended from its side into the wall behind it. As Sakura focused, she could make out the sound of moving water within the tank as well as… the pulse of a chakra. The pulse of _his_ chakra.

She flashed to the side of the machine, and made to smash into it with her fist when Suigetsu caught her wrist. A snarl bubbled up into her throat, but she swallowed it when he saw the mystified expression decorating his pale features. The familiarity with which he stared at the machine, and the visible discomfort flaring up between his brows spoke volumes.

"Stop, Pinky," he muttered. "It's a submersion tank. You break it wrong, and he could drown."

The water-nin turned to Hinata, who stepped forward between her teammates. She placed a hand against the metal, eyes tracing the lines of melded steel to get a sense of where to break it. Suigetsu strayed back a few paces, eying both women with his hands in his pockets.

"Step back, Sakura-san," whispered the Hyuuga kunoichi, before rearing back and plunging her hands in a series of quick hits against the metal. Her arms were a blur of speed and deft accuracy, before at last the dark-haired girl leaped back, pulling Sakura with her. The tank whined forcefully, shifting beneath the pressure, before a stream of water burst forth from where Hinata had attacked.

The pinkette rushed forward before the water had fully left, wrenching the opening further back until she had created an opening large enough to climb through. She blinked furiously, her irises fluctuating into the darkness as she peered inside, his pale outline coming finally into focus.

Slumped against the wall of the tank, water splashing past his shoulders and down his navel from a broken pipe to his side, lay Sasuke. His bare skin nearly glowed in the blackness, entirely exposed spare the fold of fabric tied at his waist. The dark locks of raven-black hair clung to the nape of his neck, their usual spikes drooping with the water that pooled around him. A sealed bandage covered his eyes, tied so tightly that blood streamed down his hollowed cheeks from where it cut into his skin, dripping along his jawline. An oxygen mask covered the rest of his face, hooked up to the side of the tank above him.

Sakura clambered into the tank and kneeled in the small space at his side, her delicate fingers grasping the mask and peeling it from his face. She heard it clatter to the floor behind her as she pressed her pointer and middle fingers to the depression beneath his jaw. Her own heart stuttered against her rib cage, a hole opening up in her sternum.

"Not breathing," she exhaled, barely audible. Then, frantically, to her teammates: "He's not breathing!"

Hinata materialized at the opening and began to tear at the metal edges with her finger tips to widen them. Terror gurgled up into Sakura's throat as instincts overtook her actions, and she swept one arm beneath the Uchiha's knees and the other behind the small of his back and lifted.

Her knees swayed but held as she pressed his body to her chest and straightened up, aware distantly of his head lolling to rest against the swell of her neck. No breath, no warmth, no movement – just the limpness of his cold, dampened skin against her own. She flickered a glance down to revel in his face, pale and unguarded, the power and mystique stripped away to reveal this vulnerable tragedy of a man. A boy, really.

Something caught in Sakura's throat, and she shuddered as she whipped around toward the opening of the tank, his feet dangling against her elbows. Suigetsu appeared in the frame of light, and he reached up toward them, lifting Sasuke's limp form from her arms, his lavender eyes knitting with anxiety as he searched the face of his former Taka teammate.

Sakura sprang down from her perch as Suigetsu laid the raven-haired youth onto the table behind him and moved to his side, yanking back her hair into a messy ponytail that tumbled along her spine.

"Towels," she snapped at the white-haired nin, without looking up. "And find a defibrillator!"

Sakura laced her fingers together over Sasuke's chest and began administering compressions. She counted them in her head – at times muttering them aloud – pressing with all of the strength she had against a heart that wouldn't seem to budge. Sweat beaded along her temple, gathering at the creases of her viridians and mixing with tears that had begun to gather there.

She moved to his throat, tipping back his chin to open his airways before opening his mouth and breathing for him. She counted that off, too, then roamed back to his chest to resume compressions.

 _Nothing._

With each press, her worry built. Her eyes flickered up to his face, the color drained from his cheeks, lips parted slightly. Her vision blurred and she hurriedly wiped her eyes with the back of her glove.

A flicker of movement snapped her attention, and at once Sakura tipped the pale body to its side as water spit up from his mouth in a fit of hoarse choking. The water splashed off the side of the table and onto her boots, and the loud, labored coughing wracked his body for few long moments as he struggled to clear his lungs. She kept a hand on his back, feeling the minute muscles of his torso contracting and rippling with effort beneath her fingertips, eyes searching his face as she watched him breath. Each shallow, wavering breath caught in his throat as he inhaled, but they were breaths all the same.

Sakura touched her free hand to her face and quickly smudged away the tears she hadn't realized were leaking down her cheeks, before gently settling the raven-haired shinobi down to rest on his back. Although he didn't wake up – and probably wouldn't, for some time – his vitals remained stable. His chest rose and fell in a shaky rhythm, and when she put a finger to his neck, a weak pulse rose to meet the warmth of her touch.

Hinata grazed her shoulder, and Suigetsu appeared across from her with a pile of towels and blankets. The kunoichi moved to clean Sasuke up as best they could, padding away the water and discarding towels as they went, before wrapping him up as tightly as they could in the blankets. Suigetsu waited at the door, keeping watch as Juugo lumbered into view from the hallway.

The giant berserker had shed his curse-mark transformation and appeared at the women's side. When Sakura gave him a nod, he hoisted Sasuke's body into his arms with ease, and together the team hurried out the door.

The made it to the stairs and up to the exit without encountering another opponent, spare the ones struggling through unconsciousness on the floor. As they breached into the light, Sakura stole a final glance back into the darkness of the hideout. A thought flittered through her mind that she couldn't quite swallow.

It had all been too easy.

* * *

 **A/N**

The most action-packed chapter yet! This one was hard to write – I'm a little out of practice with the fight sequences – but boy was it rewarding. I stole the submersion tank idea from _Stranger Things_ and will go into more detail about what was going on there soon.

Anyway, sorry for the delay, and I hope you like it! Please please review – it helps me get inspired to write and update more frequently. Thank you!

xoxo

Indigo


	7. Relief

**Keep Me Close**

 _.: Chapter 7 – Relief :._

* * *

Suigetsu threaded his way through the tumble of boulders along the beach, his lavender hues flicking up to survey the sea cliff looming overhead. Rain draped over him and his team in heavy sheets, and although he enjoyed it, he could sense their discomfort and urgency boring holes into the back of his shirt. He shifted the weight of his blade to relieve some pressure from his shoulder blade and pressed on, expelling discomfort in a long sigh.

He had only ever been to this Sound hideout on one occasion, and at the time he hadn't made an effort to memorize the location of its entrance. It concealed itself somewhere among the boulders fractured off from the cliff above, and the hideout itself was set into the cliff face itself, its windows gazing out over them yet invisible to prying eyes.

At once, the silvery-haired shinobi pulled himself around a corner, and found himself in front of a singular white stone amongst the ebony. A particular loud wave roared in the background, its dregs rushing past his ankles and tugging at them as it receded. He barely noticed, his long fingers instead lacing together in a series of signs before pressing themselves firmly against the white.

A deep rumbling shook the ground in response, and Suigetsu slanted his gaze toward the cliffs just as a darkened entrance materialized along its surface. A tiny smirk flickered across the edge of his lips before he cast a glance to his team, huddled together at his back. He put the straw of his water bottle to his lips as his eyes fixed upon the pink-haired girl's expression. Her viridian eyes were dewy and bloodshot, violet circles hanging beneath them, with dried crimson smeared across her collarbone and staining the front of her shirt. Her irises never left the face of his former teammate, still draped over Juugo's back, as if he might disappear into the harsh air around them if she made to look away.

 _Such a pain_ , he thought to himself.

The Mist shinobi looked away sharply, and motioned for the group to follow. He ground his sharp teeth together and picked at his nails as he walked through the entrance, flicking on a light switch immediately to his left.

The stairway lit up before them, each stair made of rich oak, light fixtures made of ornate silver along the wall. He made his way up them, his chakra scraping at the dregs to keep him steady. Although he loathed to admit it, fighting his way through all of those samurai had exhausted his resources, especially after the last few years of living combat-free. He made a mental note to double down on training, after the completion of this mission.

Unlike many of Orochimaru's hideouts, this one was built more like a home than it was a sunken laboratory. It was set into the point of a small cape, and the main living room, which revealed itself before them now, opened out with floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the sea. Sunlight brightened each corner, swimming over the untouched carpets and furniture with what dappled light shone through the clouds overhead. Rain pattered against the windows, and the kitchen tucked into the corner hummed with ready appliances.

Suigetsu turned away from the view and took them down an adjacent hallway, kicking open the first door he came to.

"Put him here," he muttered, so quietly that he wasn't sure he'd said it at all. His eyes darted around the master bedroom before him. A large bed took up the majority of the space in the middle, flanked by bedside tables and one large armchair. One wall was made entirely of windows, and beyond that a small deck greeted the sea. Somewhere to the left, a doorway led to the private bath. When Suigetsu had stayed here last, Orochimaru had claimed this room and hadn't let his experiments set foot beyond the threshold.

Juugo brushed by him and lowered the bundle of blankets from his back onto the bed. He stepped away without a word, allowing the female teammates to tend to the following steps. The giant's auburn eyes flickered up to catch Suigetsu's, and they exchanged looks of apprehension. They were both trained to kill, not to heal, and in this room, the powerlessness was suffocating.

"We'll get supplies," offered Juugo finally, his voice soft as he lumbered toward the exit. Suigetsu eyed the pink-haired kunoichi again, who's hues never lifted as she peeled back the layers of blankets and towels from her patient.

Had she even heard them? He tilted his head to the side, unable to dig up his usual humor. This tenacity, the care that burned like liquid flames in the core of that gaze – he was unfamiliar with it. It made him uncomfortable. And as he slunk after Juugo, he wondered if he would ever feel such urgency. He loosed a fatigued sigh and crammed his hands in his pockets. What did it matter, anyway? They disappeared down the hall.

Back in the room, Hinata reappeared from the bathroom, damp hand towels in each hand. Sakura took one from her without looking up and folded it over the dark-haired youth's forehead in attempt to cool him down.

Sweat beaded along the porcelain features of his face, his high cheekbones flaring pink with fever. Although his vitals had remained stable during their sea crossing, his breath now came in short gasps and deep creases winced between his brow from the effort. At times, soft moans forced past his teeth, his eyes rolling back in their sockets beneath closed lids.

Sakura peeled back the last blanket and tossed it to the floor, exposing his torso and examining the wounds that crisscrossed his pale skin. Her stomach twisted as she took the other towel from Hinata and began to gently pad away the blood, unable to see the full extent beneath the grime. She drew back, choking back a sob as she sent a steady flow of green chakra into her fingertips.

" _Why did they do this to you_?" she whispered, her voice trembling as she pressed her hand against the nearest wound and pulsed her energy through the tear in his flesh.

He had been stabbed, over and over again. Many of the wounds had been healed – albeit poorly – only to be replaced by a new one. Three were open now, one clearly infected, the others close to it. A flowering of violet bruising over one side of his abdomen indicated internal damage, and Sakura watched in mute horror as the area over the bruise continued to swell before her eyes, the bleeding spreading beneath the surface. Burns flared across his chest, the skin pink and dotted with blisters.

"W-where should I start, Sakura-chan?" whispered Hinata, her delicate hands now glowing green with her own medical ninjutsu.

"Check his extremities," the rosette kunoichi forced through gritted teeth. She could feel Sasuke's chakra now, as she sent her own exploratory waves through his system, and her emerald hues widened. She'd never had to _search_ for his aura before – it usually crackled and burned in the air around him, wild and ominous and black as night. Now, she could feel it pulsing feebly within his frame, compacted along the key pressure points in his chest and darting away from her touch like some sort of caged animal.

Sakura sent a wave of soothing chakra through her finger tips, and felt his chest cavity ease into her touch. She exhaled, her own green chakra flaring past her wrists as she concentrated and began.

First, she traced the streaks of infection from the largest of his wounds – a knife wound just below one of his floating ribs – and found that it had clawed its way deeper than anticipated, leaking dangerously into his bloodstream. She inhaled, closed her eyes, gathered a ball of chakra into the palm of her hand, and forced it into the wound.

Sasuke's body convulsed beneath her, lashing his head back and forth in an effort to get away from it, and Hinata held him down as Sakura worked, shooting nervous looks at her counterpart. They could see him grinding his teeth, a groan rumbling through his throat.

"He's septic," said Sakura evenly. Then, quietly, just so he might hear, she whispered. "I'm so sorry, Sasuke-kun."

She sent the ball into his own chakra network, tugging the infection into it as she went. The work was painstakingly slow, each movement of the ball beneath his skin causing pain to flare across his expression, and Sakura found herself looking away as she worked, unwilling to see him writhe when _she_ was at fault.

At least, she removed the chakra from his wound, surveying it in the air before her. The infection wavered like a black mist within the energy sphere, and she hurried to the bathroom to dispose of it in the sink.

Sakura exhaled, and took a moment to assess herself. She had a little less than half of her chakra reserves left.

Next, she and Hinata split the task of mending his flesh. Sakura pressed her hands against the largest, willing her chakra along each layer of tissue, pulling them together like sutures. Her eyes fluttered shut as she felt the cells aligning one by one until, finally, all that was left was a rigid scab.

She moved to the next, Hinata still toiling at her first, distantly aware that the sun had set in the window to her back.

When nothing remained but a network of scars, Sakura moved seamlessly to the internal injury across his lower abdomen. Her hues narrowed as she determined the cause – one of the stab wounds had nicked a major artery, filling the cavity with blood that was preventing one of his lungs from filling, which explained his trouble breathing, and had also damaged one of his kidneys.

"I need towels," she said to Hinata mutely as she dug through the medical pouch at her hip. When her fingers closed around the hilt of her scalpel, she quickly pressed the blade to the Sasuke's skin just above the point of swelling.

Although she had only made a small cut, the blood gushed from the opening into Hinata's waiting towel. Sakura dropped the scalpel to the side and pressed a chakra-infused hand to the wound, watching as the swelling went down before her eyes. She sent a pulse of healing chakra through, focusing as she knitted together the walls of his artery and then moved to address his kidney.

A sound brought her attention out of the healing and to her patient, and her eyes fluttered to watch as Sasuke replaced his gasps with a single, deep breath. Then another, deep and unwavering. Sakura finished her work on the kidney and sealed the slice she had made.

Hinata lifted her hands from the table, the green aura around her hands sputtering and fading. The rosette flickered a glance up to the Hyuuga's face, noting the paleness of her cheeks and the glassy spell of exhaustion in her silver hues.

"You should stop, Hinata-chan," said Sakura, offering her teammate a small smile as consolation. Hinata frowned and glided across the room toward the pile of supplies that the boys had left at the door. She fished out a stack of gauze pads and bandages, as well as a bottle of salve that looked promising, and returned to hover at Sakura's side.

"Sakura-chan, you must rest too," she said gently, touching a hand to her friend's arm. Sakura lifted her gaze, eyes narrowing as she slanted a glance at the dark-haired kunoichi. Anger flickered through her expression. Hinata pressed the supplies against Sakura's hands.

"If we do not replenish our chakra, we will not be able to work tomorrow," Hinata continued, biting her lower lip.

Sakura tore her gaze away from the kunoichi, and back onto the face of their patient. Of her teammate. Of the man whom she cared deeply for.

The pain in his expression had eased, and he seemed to be resting more peacefully now. His matted raven locks fluttered with each breath. Sakura felt her throat close up and pressed her lips firmly together. She nodded once.

"Help me dress this," she murmured, nodding towards his chest, and together the women dabbed the burns with salve. Then: "Tell me of his extremities."

"His right knee is blown out," Hinata started, her expression even as Sakura layered out the gauze and gently lifted Sasuke's upper body from the bed so that they could wrap it with bandages.

"And he's got a wound to the femoral artery on the same leg, although it was patched. His… arm–" she gestured to the stump of his left arm, "–could use attention as well, but nothing too urgent."

Sakura nodded slowly, the energy to respond not quite there. The knee would be the hardest of those – she didn't have surgical supplies, and he was far from ready for transport. She sighed and lowered herself to sit on the edge of the bed so that she sunk into its feathery surface. She buried her face into her hands for a moment, breathing. She had less than 10% of her reserves, and the unsteady lilt of lightheadedness had begun to cloud her thoughts.

"Thank you, Hinata," she managed finally, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "Go get some sleep. I'll be right behind you."

Hinata looked her over with a furrowed brow, not quite trusting her rosette teammate to leave the Uchiha's side, before nodding and slipping out the door.

Sakura turned to look at Sasuke, drinking in his features with a level expression. While the signs of fever lingered, he appeared to be sleeping soundly, his cheek resting across the pillow to expose the sharp ankles of his opposite jawline.

She stood and replaced the damp towel over his forehead, then gently pulled the blankets out from underneath him, settling them atop his slumbering form and tucking them around his chest. She tried not to look at his abdomen, the ripple of muscle and chiseled nature of his body type brought flutters to her throat.

Though, as she looked at him, she noticed just how _lean_ he'd gotten. He'd lost a lot of weight – too much weight – so that the skin grew taught around what muscle he had left, his skin grayer than it had once bean. She made a note to herself to find him proper nutrition for once he was conscious, and an IV supplement in the meantime.

Finally, Sakura pulled the armchair closer to his bedside, settling into the deep leather so that she could rest her forearms on the blankets, propping her chin up against her knuckles. She stifled a yawn, and reached out to take his hand in hers.

She traced lines across his rough fingers, finding solace among the warm that clung there. She moved to his palm, its size dwarfing her own, and swirled her fingertips along the creased. She wondered briefly of the future they told of, and her eyes fluttered shut to take a moment of rest.

* * *

Hinata stirred from her slumber on the couch, her silvery eyes fluttering open. She hadn't meant to sleep in the living room – there was a perfectly good bedroom down the hall – but the exhaustion had taken her moments after Juugo and Suigetsu had drifted off to their own rooms. She looked out the windows surrounding her, the distant rush of waves in her ears and the gleam of the moon on the room around her bringing comfort.

A foreign chakra prickled suddenly into her peripheral, and she sat up quickly, closing her eyes as she concentrated on it. Her heart hammered against her chest. At once, the tension she held in her petite frame relaxed, for the chakra was one she recognized.

Hinata turned toward the dark hallway to see a figure approaching. A small smile swept across her lips.

"Oi, Hinata-chan," greeted Naruto, grinning sheepishly as she rose to meet him. "It's good to see you."

He tucked the dark-haired kunoichi into his arms, kissing her forehead before pulling back. He searched her face, his bright blue eyes speaking for the fear and concern bubbling within his aura. Both shinobi held exhaustion in their glances, swimming with a touch of relief.

"He's in there, Naruto-kun," breathed the kunoichi, gesturing toward the first doorway down the hall. He turned and approached the door, opening it quietly before disappearing inside. Hinata remained where she was, clutching her hands to her chest. He needed to be with his teammates right now, and she understood that.

Naruto felt the air leave his chest as he surveyed the room. The room was dimly lit, one lamp on the bedside dousing everything in a warm yellow glow. Blood-soaked rags littered the floor.

Sakura draped over the side of the bed from her chair, eyes closed in deep sleep, her coils of rosette locks tumbling over the blankets around her. She held one arm tucked beneath her cheek, the other outstretched, fingers laced with Sasuke's.

Naruto looked away, eyes falling to his own hands which he gathered in front of him. He felt uncomfortable, seeing his friend like this. The two had spent a lifetime as rivals, threatening to beat and kill each other more times than he could count, but this seemed different. There was never really any malice between them, at least from Naruto's side. The blonde shinobi's memory flitted briefly to that moment at the bridge, when he'd snatched Sakura away from the chirp of Sasuke's chidori just in time.

Naruto winced. The memory brought him a discomfort that he hadn't quite reconciled. Sasuke had once fallen so deeply lost within his revenge that it drove him mad, and Naruto hadn't been able to protect him from that.

Naruto felt the weight of someone's stare, and glanced up to find a mismatched pair of eyes regarding him coldly. One dark ebony he recognized, the other its usual haunting violet.

"Sasuke," he breathed in surprise, taking a seat at the end of the bed as he met his friend's gaze.

The Uchiha's dark hues roamed from his face to the rest of the room, taking in his surroundings with a tiny flicker of bewilderment. His gaze finally fell upon the kunoichi at his side and his eyes seemed to widen slightly. He twitched his fingers within hers, as if uncertain that the touch was real until he could feel them move against his. He exhaled sharply, observing several strands of her strawberry hair fluttering, then rolled his head back to meet Naruto's watchful stare.

"You look terrible, Teme," offered the blonde, grinning cheekily. He caught the miniscule tug of a smirk at the corner of his friend's mouth, although the dark eyes did not relent in their iciness. Sasuke parted his lips to speak, but instead of words, he turned his head to the side as a hoarse cough rattled his throat. He screwed his eyes shut for a moment, his breathing hitched.

"Dobe," he muttered finally, breathing heavily. He turned toward the window, eyeing their reflections before lifting his gaze toward the gleaming crescent moon. Naruto followed his gaze, grinning.

Sasuke slanted a look in the blonde's direction, his expression suddenly serious.

"How?" the Uchiha asked.

Naruto tilted his head, finding a small amount of comfort in the sudden crackle of chakra he felt emanating from the raven-haired man. He nodded in the direction of the kunoichi sleeping peacefully between them.

"Sakura, of course, with Hinata and your Taka guys," said Naruto, his blue hues glittering as he took in their female teammate. "She's really something," he murmured, sneaking a sideways glance at Sasuke to gauge a reaction, his expression sheepish.

Sasuke shrugged, but his glance flickered down to Sakura, her shoulder blades rising and falling as she breathed. Violet half-moons hung with exhaustion beneath her lids, matching the ones on his own face. He turned over his hand beneath hers, sliding his thumb back and forth along her fingers. They felt so soft and delicate against his calloused grip.

He exhaled, and let himself sink a little deeper into the blankets. Sleep tugged at his eyelids.

"I'll let you rest," he heard Naruto say. He flicked open one eye, watching as his teammate rounded the bed and scooped up the kunoichi in his arms. She shifted, mumbling something against Naruto's collarbone, but did not wake as he carried her out the door toward one of the adjacent bedrooms.

"It's like one big sleepover," said Naruto cheerfully as he reentered the room a few minutes later, beaming as his hand moved to the light switch. "Night, Teme. Try not to get abducted again while I'm gone."

The lights switched off, and Sasuke listened as Naruto padded out the door and pulled it closed behind him. His eyes floated shut, allowing his shoulders to relax back into the pillows as he exhaled. He loathed the unknowns hanging in the air around him, and loathed even more being unable to do anything about them.

However, a small part of him also trembled with _relief_.

His existence would no longer be fleeting moments of consciousness between his cell and the torture in the lab. All of that was over, and he could feel the pulse of his teammates' chakra scattered about the different rooms around him. Sakura's peridot aura drifting about her like a gentle wave as she slept, Naruto's crackling red chakra mingling with Hinata's silver in the main room.

So, when sleep moved to overtake him, Sasuke allowed it to, trusting that he would awaken in the same place. A brief smile passed across his features into the dark.

* * *

 **A/N**

Our girl coming through in the clutch! I cannot wait to put these two in the same room, but both conscious. xD Do you ever write/read SS fanfics just to get to the fluff…?

*raises hand*

Just kidding, just kidding. I definitely love writing those kinds of scenes, but I actually have a very clear plan for where we're going with this. It's not where you expect! And I cannot wait.

In other news, I rewrote some of the first chapter because I'm habitually unsatisfied with it. If you have any ideas for how you think I should improve it, I'm all ears.

I've also decided I'm going to Comic Con this summer in Denver, CO, and I've never been to one before and I'm already really excited! Maybe a bit premature. I don't think I'm going to go in full cosplay (maybe next time) but I'm going to wear an Uchiha sweatshirt at the very least. :3 Maybe I'll see some of you there!

Thank you all for reading! I love you all and really appreciate the reviews. 3

xoxo

Indigo


	8. Warmth

**Keep Me Close**

 _Chapter 8 – Warmth_

* * *

Sakura drifted in and out of sleep, rolling over and nuzzling her cheek into the pillow. Her eyes wandered open, the veil of sleep receding as she blinked back the fatigue that clung to her eyelashes.

She sat up suddenly, whipping her head around as her viridian hues darted wildly across the room. Although the room's aesthetic matched that of the rest of the hideout, she did not recognize the space, nor did she remember falling asleep there. She could feel her heart rate rising in her throat with confusion as she whipped the blankets off of herself, and found that she still wore her mission clothes from the previous day. She could feel the layer of dried sweat and filth clinging to her skin in a thick layer.

A faint knock at the door alerted her to the presence of Hinata's aura, and she turned as the dark-haired kunoichi cautiously unlocked the door and peered inside.

"Ah, Sakura-chan!" she hummed, stepping in and shutting the door behind her. She flitted to Sakura's bedside. "I thought you might be awake. I found this dress in one of the rooms, and thought it might fit you."

She offered forth a folded black slip and a towel, her expression warm.

"Thank you, Hinata," murmured the rosette, rubbing her eyes as she swung her legs off the side of the bed. "But I've really got to check on Sasuke-kun."

Hinata placed a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"He's sleeping, Sakura," she said warmly. "I changed his bandages and Suigetsu-san helped me find an IV. Take some time and get cleaned up, and I'll have some food ready by the time you're out."

"Are you sure–"

"Yes. Go," said Hinata evenly, guiding the rosette toward her private bath once she had risen to her feet.

Sakura stood by herself in the bathroom for a moment, clutching the towel to her chest as she peered around. She distantly heard Hinata padding out to the hallway and sighed. She yanked her shirt and bra over her head first, then unclasped her skirt and shimmied out of her shorts. She turned next to the mirror, eying her matted pink locks and the blood caked onto the skin around her collarbone with a frown

She exhaled sharply and turned on the shower, the room soon billowing with steam. She stepped delicately into the stream and stood still for a time, the warm water falling numbly onto her shoulders as her mind wandered elsewhere.

When she closed her eyes, she could still hear the screams that had brought her to her knees in the hospital only a week prior. The image of Sasuke's limp body as she fought to keep his heart beating seared into her retinas. The way he had shuddered beneath her touch as she healed him, and hurt him.

Sakura unlocked her viridian eyes, the stream of water running down her nose from where it fell atop the crown of her head. She stared at the wall, letting the tiles blur out of focus as she reached out her hand and traced the rough edges.

 _Sasuke-kun._

They had just got him back. For years, she and Naruto and the rest of her Konoha teammates had battled to bring him back. Years spent watching him plunge deeper and darker into a life of violence and chaos that nearly swallowed him whole. Gone, with no way of getting him back.

And somehow, by some miracle, Naruto went into the darkness after him and fished him back out. He fulfilled his promise, and Sasuke found his way home again. They had him back.

Yet, Sakura couldn't help but to see the fragility of it. How easily Sasuke might slip between their fingers and back into the blackness. The terror of that past life seemed to lurk just behind him whenever she gazed upon him, as if threatening to reel him back beyond her reach.

What if they lost him again?

At some point, they would have to ask him what had happened Kyreen. How he'd gotten caught, what they'd done to him while he was held captive, the methods of torture used against him and why. She wasn't sure she could hear it. And she wasn't sure _he_ would stay to tell it.

The idea of listening to him describe yet another round of suffering he'd been subjected to – suffering that she couldn't protect him from, suffering that she'd done so little to prevent and stop – burned a hole in her chest. _She_ wanted to shoulder it, _she_ wanted to take on that burden, for once. Anything that might spare him, and help anchor him to this life.

Instead, Sakura felt like the same useless nuisance she'd been as a child, always a stride behind her teammates and never there when they needed her to be. She choked down a sob, the sound drowned out by the noise of the shower. She needed to be strong for him. _She_ had to be that anchor.

Sakura turned her focus to the bottles of soap along the side of the shower, and set to washing her hair and skin. The water at her feet stained red and brown and black before spiraling down the drain.

She stepped out into the steamy bathroom and toweled herself dry before slipping into the clothing Hinata had found. She glanced at herself in the mirror, combing her fingers through her short locks in an effort to calm the tangles that stared back at her. The sleeveless shift fit her loosely, so she grabbed the belt from her skirt and cinched it around her waist, tucking the weapons kit she always kept on her person against her back.

Sakura exited the bathroom in a scented cloud, before spotting her bag in the corner and rifling through it for an extra pair of spandex shorts and underwear. She shimmied into both of them, then grabbed her forehead protector and looped it through her hair.

With an exhale, she slipped into the hallways. Although she had planned to check on Sasuke first, a familiar voice and an intoxicating smell from the living room lured her there instead.

She peeked around the corner of the hallway, and blinked back her surprise when a head of platinum blonde hair met her gaze.

"Naruto-kun?"

The shinobi in question whirled in his seat, his whiskered face lighting up with recognition. He leapt up from his stool at the kitchen counter and bounded across the room toward her. Hinata chuckled from where she stood at the stove, stirring away at a large pot. He enveloped the rosette in a tight squeeze.

"Sakura-chan!" he beamed, pulling back to get a good look at her. She jabbed him in the chest with her pointer finger, but found herself smiling within his presence all the same.

"When did you get in?" she asked quietly, moving toward the counter as Hinata leaned over to join them.

"Late last night," he said, sticking out his lower lip in a pout as he rested his cheek on the marble. Hinata rolled her eyes.

"You fell asleep at Sasuke-kun's bedside, so he moved you into the other room," offered Hinata, prodding the blonde shinobi in the forehead with a bowl from the pot she'd busied herself over. He practically jumped to attention, grabbing it hastily and peering greedily into its contents.

"Hinata, tell me he hasn't trained you to just make ramen all the time," laughed Sakura, skirting her gaze over to the raven-haired girl as her face flared red.

"I-is that a problem? Do you not like it?" she stammered. Sakura laughed, and took the bowl that Hinata offered her.

"No, no. I like ramen," Sakura said quickly, sipping at the broth. Her stomach rumbled – she hadn't realized how hungry she'd been. The light streaming in from the windows indicated it was midday, and she'd slept through breakfast and had barely nibbled at a stale baguette for dinner the night before. "And thank you."

Naruto passed his now empty bowl to Hinata for a second helping, and furrowed his brow as he surveyed his rosette teammate. Sakura met his gaze warily and set down her food, gulping. Something heavy hung in the air between them.

"Sakura-chan, there's something we need to discuss," he said, his voice holding a seriousness that didn't quite suit him. His blue eyes were gleaming strangely. She said nothing, but waited for him to explain. She could hear her heartbeat filling the silence.

"Hinata filled me on the mission, but there's more," he said, dropping his gaze now to his bowl without moving to touch his chopsticks. "We got these reports, back in Konoha before I left. A rogue shinobi attacking villages up and down the coast. Casualties, not sure how many. But, he… he matches Sasuke's description."

The silence that followed pulsed through Sakura's core like a drum.

"Sasuke-kun… he wouldn't–"

"I know, I know," Naruto interrupted, putting up his hands, his eyes flecked with a heavy gray. "I know he wouldn't…but he _did_. Or, at least, his body did. But the Hidden Mist is demanding retribution."

Sakura stared into her bowl, distantly aware that she'd dropped her chopsticks onto the counter. Nausea gripped her stomach.

"But it wasn't him," she said. She whipped around to face Naruto, fury now alighting into her viridian hues as she smashed her fist onto the marble. "We can't let him take the fall for this. Naruto, we can't let them do this to him–"

Naruto pulled her into his chest, holding her tightly until her breathing slowed. She cursed herself for tearing up again as her teammate breathed into her hair.

"We can't lose him again, Naruto," she whispered into the orange of his sweatshirt. He pulled away slowly, holding her up by her shoulders and grinning at her with the same glitter of reassurance that he'd been offering her since they were genin.

"We won't let that happen, Sakura-chan. We'll figure this out."

She exhaled shakily and slowly detached his hands from her shoulders. She tugged her hand through her hair and exchanged a look of apprehension with Hinata before hurriedly wiping the moisture from her eyes and settling back into her stool.

Sakura finished her bowl of ramen, thanking Hinata profusely before helping her clean. Naruto migrated to the couch. Suigetsu and Juugo didn't appear – most likely setting a perimeter around the hideout.

"There's one more thing that's been bothering me," Sakura said after a long period of silence, turning from the sink to face her fellow Leaf shinobi. Hinata glanced up from putting away the leftovers in the fridge, and Naruto perked up from the couch across the room.

"Our rescue – it was too easy," she declared evenly, gliding across the room and taking a seat on the coffee table, while Hinata curled herself up on the opposite end of the couch beside Naruto, watching her.

"As far as I can tell, we've got at least two enemies here. The golden-haired man we met at the village and at the hideout, and another… whoever was occupying Sasuke's body when he attacked. That kind of ninjutsu would require too much focus for it to be the same person," she thought aloud, catching each of her friends' gazes before dropping her gaze to her hands in her lap.

"And we never had to fight either of them. There has to be a reason they retreated – no one would go through that kind of trouble just to let us get him back without a fuss."

Naruto leaned over his knees and buried his face in his hand, expelling a long sigh before running his hands through his thick hair, eyes now on the floor.

"Yeah," he agreed.

"What if he can still be manipulated? Is that even possible from such a distance?" asked Hinata.

"We should just ask him," said Naruto with a shrug.

"Once he wakes up, we can," Sakura murmured, raising to her feet.

"He is awake," he said, blinking as if it were the most obvious tidbit of information shared that morning. Sakura's fist connected with his jaw, sending him reeling into the back of the couch.

"W-what the hell, Naruto?!" she roared. "You're only telling me this _now_?!"

She stormed out of the living room in a huff, leaving the two to their own devices. He'd been awake, and by himself, this whole time and _she wasn't there for him._ She kicked herself for being so stupid. Injuries still littered his body, and she had ignored her post.

Sakura paused outside the door and took a deep breath before turning the handle and pulling herself through.

Sasuke's eyes were shut when she entered, so she closed the door softly behind herself and padded toward the bed. He'd shifted positions since she had last seen him, and he now slept with his body angled toward the window, his arm hanging off the edge of the bed. She approached the IV at his bedside, checking the pouches of fluid that hung there, dripping into the attachment at his elbow.

The tubes tinkled against the IV stand, and her gaze flickered down to see his arm retract onto the bed, and up to see two dark eyes regarding her from the nest of pillows. His thick hair tousled a perfect frame around his porcelain features – the flush of fever gone, the circles beneath his eyes reduced from violet to gray, a touch of healthy color creeping back into his high-cheekbones. He frowned, his eyelashes drooping slightly from sleep.

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura murmured. A warm rush of relief flooded through her chest, and she extended her fingertips to his outstretched hand and took it in hers. She perched herself at the edge of the bed, eyes cast down at his hands as she began to trace lines along the creases, running her thumb across the roughness of his palm. Although she half expected him to, he did not withdraw from her touch, but continued to watch her with an aloof expression.

"I'm so glad you're okay." Her voice sounded thick, and she could feel wetness forming at the corners of her eyes. She hurriedly brushed them away with her free hand, refusing to meet the stare whose weight she could feel at her back. She didn't want to see him cry. _She_ should be comforting _him._ She mustn't cry.

She heard him shift against the mattress and turned to look at him over her shoulder, finding him now propped up against the pillows. His hand slipped away from hers, and she opened her mouth to speak but paused as his fingers brushed against her cheek. His eyes never left hers, the mismatched ebony and lavender hues studying her expression with curious intent, as if he might find something hidden there should he look hard enough. The slightest of smirks curled up along the corner of his lips.

Sasuke's thumb, rough against the smoothness of her skin, slid back and forth along her cheek, wiping away the wetness that had gathered there. He cupped her face for a moment before allowing his hand to fall to his side. His ebony gaze swiveling away toward the window, breaking the intensity with which he'd held her. She released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.

Her expression faltered for a moment, and she allowed herself a small smile before running a hand through her strawberry curls and hopping to her feet.

"Do you mind if I check your bandages?" she asked, battling down the flutters that his touch had brought to her chest. His gaze flicked to hold hers again, his expression unchanging as he shook his head once.

Sakura leaned over him and began to peel away the layer of bandages, each movement as delicate and gentle as she could manage. He watched her, eyes flickering curiously from the movement of her fingers to her viridian gaze. After a time, he settled back into the mattress, tension visibly easing from his shoulders as he turned his head to cast another gaze out the window.

"This will hurt," Sakura warned once she had reached the layer of gauze pads protecting his burns and prepared to pull them away from the skin. He didn't respond, but his shoulders shifted in what she assumed was a small shrug. She grasped the corner of the first sheet of gauze and slowly peeled it away.

Sasuke hissed, his grip snapping shut around a fistful of sheets as he screwed his eyes shut and forced an exhale through clenched teeth. Sakura tossed the gauze into the waste basket at her side, and waited as he slowly unwound again.

"How did all of this… happen?" she asked, gesturing at the burns as she approached the next piece of gauze. His eyes flicked open and glared up at her, and she blanched as she realized how easily he'd seen through her desire to distract him. He spun his head away again, wincing as she revealed more of his burns to the open air.

"I don't know," he answered, his tone flat. They were the first words he'd spoken to her. Sakura glanced up and noticed a flicker of frustration pass through his ebony hues before he continued: "I think it's from one of my fire styles. He must have tried to use it, but failed… evidently." A tiny smirk twitched at the edges of his lips.

Sakura peeled off another gauze pad in one fluid motion, wiping the smug expression from his face and replacing it with another of discomfort. It was so typical of the raven-haired Uchiha to find something to be smug about in his own abduction. She peeled off the final square of gauze and tossed it, then turned back with liquid green chakra sizzling along each hand. Without waiting for his approval, she pressed her fingertips to the burns.

He lurched away from the touch, cursing at her under his teeth until the soothing nature of her touch made it to his synapses. She allowed a small smile to grace her lips as the bitterness drained immediately from his expression and was replaced with an unexpected peacefulness. He frowned, as if uncomfortable with how _comfortable_ the sensation was, and she chuckled as she set to mending the burned flesh cell by cell.

Sasuke watched her work silently, his dark eyes widening minutely as the blisters softened and faded before his eyes. At one point, she thought he saw the tomoes of the sharingan swirling out of the corner of his eye and wondered if he was copying her movements, but upon exploring his chakra points, decided he certainly didn't have enough for that.

"Sasuke," she muttered as she worked. "I know you probably don't want to talk about it… but I have to ask. How did they… get you?"

The raven-haired shinobi's eyes narrowed to slits and he looked away sharply, his stare icy as he refused to meet her gaze. She turned her viridians back to his burns and continued knitting the flesh, lips pursed.

More than anything, she wanted to whisk him home to the village – to take him to a real hospital and to flutter with him through the streets and serve him ginger tea and sleep on the porch and never open the box to this mission ever again. She hated herself for having to ask the questions that so obviously opened wounds she was so busy closing.

"I let my guard down," Sasuke intoned, his voice laced with a venom that Sakura had to consciously remind herself wasn't directed at her. He chose his words mechanically and sparingly, a resentful crease forming between his brows.

"The harbor master's was an ambush," he continued, chewing on his words as he ran his fingers absently through his raven tresses. His thumb paused on his lip, eyes gleamed with distaste as he cast his gaze away from hers and out toward the sea in thought. "They drugged my drink, and hid these seals that blocked my chakra and sharingan…. I should have seen it coming."

Each word fell flatly, as if he were trying to distance himself from them with his matter-of-factness. Yet, beneath his words, stirred an expression that Sakura didn't quite recognize, humming within all of the fury and distaste. And as she studied him, staring out the window shrouded by the blackness of his chakra, she realized what it was. He was concealing shame.

"I'm immune to most poisons, so the possibility of getting _drugged_ never crossed my mind," he spat, gripping the sheets with his hand as if to twist the life from them. His eyes danced upon Sakura as she pulled away from his chest, her work finished.

She hovered for a moment beside him, suddenly unsure of herself as the sudden burn of violence in his eyes threatened to push her away. Her gaze fell to her hands in her lap, and she studied her finger tips.

"You can't blame yourself, Sasuke-kun," she murmured, lifting her gaze as he raised his brow. He did nothing to conceal his look of irritation, as if she had somehow insulted him with her words.

"Tch. Don't be annoying," he said, his expression cold as he flickered his glance across her face and back to the ocean beyond the window.

The strength rushed from Sakura's limbs. Her jaw grew slack as her hands trembled against her collarbone, eyes wide.

Suddenly, she was no longer the A-rank jounin who'd trained under the fifth Hokage and clawed to the top of an esteemed medical ladder. The comment had stripped her of any semblance of accomplishment, and she found herself a genin again, whose sole dream in life was an unrequited love that left her broken and alone on a Konoha bench.

Sakura tore her gaze from where she hid it in her hands to his face. She was furious, now. She was not that child. She was not _annoying._ And he knew that, too. She swallowed the pride she'd built up around herself and exhaled.

He was lashing out and falling into an old role because _he_ was the one hurting. He had always been the one hurting. Now, it was her turn to do something about it.

"Did the seals… hurt?" she breathed, regretting the words the second they passed her lips. He blinked –– he hasn't expected that question – his lips parting for a moment before resetting in a thin line. He tucked his chin once in a diminutive nod.

Before she could speak, his ebony hues flicked away to examine the healed skin across his chest, and he brought his fingertips up explore the surface with his touch. He tensed as a softer, lighter hand reached out before him and rested against his sternum, dark orbs flashing up to catch her viridian gaze, narrowing slightly.

"I felt it, too," she murmured, eyes darting down to the carved muscles of his chest, aware of his heartbeat quickening beneath her fingertips. "When… it happened. Like you called out, and I could hear it and feel what you were feeling in my head."

Sakura's voice quivered, and she ran her hand through her strawberry locks as her eyes scurried away to the window. She started to withdraw her touch from his chest, and his fingers suddenly closed around her wrist. She whirled around, his eyes locking into hers as he towed her closer. She fell forward, throwing her opposite hand out to catch herself as she found herself hovering over him, her face a breath above his.

Her cheeks burned, the breath disappearing from her lungs as she froze in suspension. She felt the warmth of his breathing, puffing against her cheeks with the slightest scent of mint. He tilted his head, his raven-hued tresses shifting to reveal the swirl of lavender within one eye, flecked with a charcoal gray she had never been close enough to see before.

She drank in his features, her lips parting as her coils of rose locks tumbled past her ears and mingled with his tousled spikes. He captured her in the unwavering angles of his jawline and the brow, his porcelain smooth skin almost glowing in their proximity. He smelled intoxicating – a masculine musk hinting of pine and mountain air and salt – and it pulled her closer. She slid into the space between his legs, her belly pressed against his abdomen. Her palms shifted into the mattress, her shoulders aching to lower to her elbows and close the space between their faces.

Sakura realized with a flutter that he was smirking at her now, as he searched her face. The expression hardened, abruptly, and she pulled back as his brow knitted together with seriousness.

"You felt all that?" Sasuke asked, breaking her trance with his voice low. She nodded slowly, biting her lip as the echoes of his screams carved into the back of her mind. She didn't know if she should move away or stay put, but something about the urgency with which he still gripped her wrist and the wild searching of his eyes across her face held her in place.

"I'm sorry," he said, after a fleeting moment of silence. He exhaled, his fingers untangling from around her wrist. His eyes softened, almost imperceptibly, and he seemed restless beneath her. "You shouldn't… have had to."

Sakura blinked back her surprise, faintly aware that it was _guilt_ now playing out across his expression. He felt _guilty_ for having caused her this pain that was so small next to what he'd endured.

"N-no, don't apologize," she whispered, her voice cracking as she shook her head. "I just… I-I'm supposed to be making you feel better, and here I am making _you_ console _me."_

A tear slid down the bridge of her nose, splashing to his collarbone, and she hurriedly smudged her cheek with the back of her hand and inhaled. She could feel him watching her, and she nervously raised her viridian glance to meet his gaze.

"I thought you were dead," she breathed as she lost herself in his mismatched hues, unable to stop the water that continued to leak down her cheeks. She wanted desperately to capture this image of his face, this moment laying in the warmth with him, and never let it go. "I thought you were dead."

She felt his fingers brush against the small of her trembling back, and she looked up in surprise as he pulled her into his chest. Her arms gave way as she buried herself against his neck, his body tensing within the embrace before easing into her touch. He wrapped his arm around her small frame, holding her to himself as his fingertips traced silhouettes along her shoulder.

His smell and his warmth enveloped her, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she curled into the space beneath his shoulder, legs folded across his. She lay her hand across his chest so that he could feel the steady rhythm of his heart beneath the skin that she had mended, and he pressed his mouth against her forehead.

"Thank you, Sakura," he breathed into her hair.

* * *

 **A/N**

;w; 33

This was really exciting to write. I've been looking forward to some good ol' fashioned SasuSaku angst/lovin' since I started writing this, and it feels lovely to get the ball rolling in that direction. I love these munchkins so much.

Soundtrack: "Always" by The Him

(I literally could not stop listening to this song during the two days I was working on this chapter, so if you haven't heard it already you definitely should. I honestly want to learn how to make AMVs just so I can make a vid to this song. We'll see...)

Quick update for y'all before I go into hiding for a little while. Work is crazy busy for the month of January, and I'm hoping to be able to settle back into my routine in a few weeks.

#adulting #yuck

As always, hit me with questions and thank you for reading! I hope you enjoy. :3 And please please please review!

xoxo

Indigo


	9. Redemption

**Chapter 9 — Redemption**

* * *

Her expression flickered with hurt, her viridian hues gleaming with the emotion she was quick to steal away with a dropped glance to her lap.

 _Tch. Don't be annoying._

She'd taken it like a hit to her stomach, her chakra withdrawing in on itself as her face drained. The rosy of her cheekbones pale, the glitter of her eyes replaced with a glassy gray – all replaced, just as quickly, with a look of livid rage. Her aura leaping up around him like emerald flames, roaring around the diamond emblazoned on her forehead. He was aware, distantly, that she could destroy him, in that moment, if she desired to.

Sasuke looked away sharply, discomfort stirring in his chest. He hated these interactions. They were too complicated, and he had neither the desire nor energy to waste on decoding the emotional responses of another person. It was all so infuriating.

He had enough to deal with. His mind and body had been hijacked, and although he certainly felt better than before, he found himself dangerously on edge. His chakra supplies were dwindling, what restored reserves he had focused wholly on healing his battered limbs, and he couldn't help but feel the nagging concern that the _presence_ of another human in his own head might resurface at any point.

First, he wanted to get rid of it all and just be alone for a while. Second, he wanted to fight. Really fight – like a good spar with Naruto – to unleash some of the fury he felt burning a hole in the pit of his stomach.

Instead, he was stuck in this room. And he had just insulted the kunoichi who not only rescued him, but who also put his body back together again after the fact.

Sasuke tore his gaze from the window, eyes flickering with surprise. Instead of the look of shock and of hurt with which he'd left her, Sakura had an expression of near contentment. Warmth gleamed in those viridians as she met his gaze and _smiled._

"Did it…hurt?"

He looked at her. She was an enigma. He'd thrown her childhood insecurities in her face, and she rose to meet it with warmth and concern. She was this otherworldly creature – with ridiculous pink hair and a bejeweled forehead – who never made a fraction of sense in her decision making, caring more for the wellbeing of strangers than for her own life. It was maddening.

Couldn't she see that he wanted to be alone? That he'd insulted her to make her leave? Wouldn't have any sane person done just that?

Instead, as he nodded in the affirmative to her question, he felt her draw nearer. Nervousness trembled in her movements as she dragged her fingers through her rosette coils, lips parting to speak.

"I felt it, too," she murmured.

Sasuke felt his body go cold. _What did she say?_

Since entering the shinobi world, Sasuke had been no stranger to the physical traumas of his occupation. He'd been stabbed, hit, burnt and blown up more times than he could count – but all of these ailments paled in comparison to, first, reliving the massacre of his clan during Itachi's Tsukiyomi as a child, and, second, being injected with Orochimaru's curse mark, also as a child.

Although not quite on that level, he now considered the events in Kyreen to be a close third.

He regarded Sakura carefully. Although she met his gaze with strength, and he knew of the Sannin-level chakra that rippled beneath her skin, he couldn't imagine her tiny frame taking on the burden of that day. It might have snapped her in two. As if all that she did for her friends, and her village, weren't enough – Sasuke loathed himself for this.

He glanced down at the new layer of skin glowing across his chest. Only minutes before, it had been a searing red burn, blistering and blackened. He touched it delicately, as if it might melt away, and found it smoother and softer than it had been before.

Her hand brushed against his skin, just below his collarbone, and pressed against his sternum. Although her touch was gentle, he could feel the hum of her aura vibrating below the surface. He flickered a glance up to her face. She met his gaze with warmth, viridians glowing as he eyed her.

She moved to slide her hand away, and he caught her wrist. Her expression narrowed with confusion, the speed with which he'd drawn his hand to hers unnatural.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke muttered, after a moment of charged silence. He exhaled, looking away. "You shouldn't… have had to."

Now, it was her turn to avoid his gaze. Tears splashed down her cheeks. Guilt rolled over in Sasuke's belly as he watched her waver in place. Had he said something to upset her? Had he insulted her without realizing…?

"I thought you were dead," she whispered. He tilted his head, mouth opening and snapping shut again.

He hadn't died, he was sitting right in front of her. Why was she still crying? Why was she so emotional about something that hadn't happened? The tears weren't slowing and she looked so devastated, and he just wanted it to stop.

He didn't understand any of it.

Between her and Naruto, Sasuke had never encountered two people more willing to dive into the dark and look past so many years of his own wrongdoing. The behavior made so little sense – it would have been so much easier and so much more efficient to let him go, and yet they'd never even considered it as a possibility. Decisions rooted in reckless and thoughtless emotion were common for Naruto, but for Sakura – it made even less sense.

Sakura was a woman of intense logic. Her strength and unmatched skill in chakra control aside, she occupied her own class of strategy and data retention. Once she read something, she commited it to memory, and could pull from that wealth of knowledge as she pleased, synthesizing intel on the go and capable of serving as an unparalleled asset in the field. She had been that way since they were kids.

Yet with all of her risk assessments and reasoning, she had still come after him.

 _Why?_

So much had changed in the kunoichi, that sometimes he barely recognized her when he saw her. She was taller and slimmer, the softness of her genin days replaced by lean yet hardened muscle that rippled with each small movement. She moved with a deftness and quickness that spoke of a confidence that he'd never before seen from her, her eyes as flashing and as fierce as the lightning-green chakra that flickered around her form. She had this frown, too, which slipped across her features when her mind flew elsewhere, that rippled with _don't-fuck-with-me_ attitude. The threads of this powerful kunoichi had always been there, but Sasuke wasn't used to it in full bloom.

Yet, despite all of these shifts, one thing hadn't changed. He saw it in the tears leaking down her cheeks, and in the shuddering of her shoulders and in the way her viridians glimmered when she stole them open. He felt it in the warmth of her hand and in the small resistance she gave when he pulled her into himself and squeezed her tiny frame against his chest.

She cared. With her whole body and soul, she cared for him. And it hurt her. He had seen these tears and this pain rattling her bones too many times. Yet she continued to care, with the same warmth and determination that she had as a child.

"Thank you, Sakura," he breathed into her hair. Although he usually bristled at personal contact, something about the familiarity of it – the slight scene of lavender in her hair, the warmth of her hand against his skin and nervous tap of her heart – brought him a strange ease. He exhaled evenly and shifted into the pillow beneath him, taking care not to jostle the kunoichi.

Sakura tilted her chin, blinking up at him. His reflection wavered among the emerald before she settled her head back against his chest.

"Get some rest, Sasuke-kun," he heard her murmur. When he didn't respond, she stole another glance up to find his eyes closed, his breathing slow and level in sleep. She hummed a sigh and burrowed against him again, smiling to herself as she, too, closed her eyes and ran her fingers absently along his collarbone.

* * *

"Oi, Sakura-chan," Naruto called out cheerfully, bounding through the door without a thought to knocking. He babbled on as he fumbled to close the door behind himself. "It's been a long time and there isn't anything to do–"

The blonde stopped short as his eyes alighted across his teammates, cerulean hues leaping from Sasuke's face to Sakura's, then to the tangle of sheets and limbs between them. His face burned scarlet.

"What the hell, Sasuke–?" he yelled, pointing a finger wildly as he scuttled against the back wall with his free hand flung over his eyes.

"Shut up, Naruto!" the kunoichi hissed, snatching a pillow and hurling it at him in one quick motion. It hit him square in the head, and he slid to the floor in a dramatic pile.

"Can't you tell he's asleep, baka?!" Sakura muttered, fighting to keep from raising her voice. "And there is literally nothing to see here. Get your filthy mind out of the gutter."

Only minutes before, after a moment of rest, Sakura had detached herself from within Sasuke's hold and moved to his opposite side to see to what was left of his left arm. She untangled the bandages and eyed the pink pucker of scars, flushed purple with irritation, and allowed the familiar pulse of chakra to hum through her fingertips and into his flesh.

This was where she'd been when Naruto had barged in – sitting up against Sasuke's side, her legs draped across him, hands glowing purple while her eyes remained furrowed in concentration. Both fully clothed, Sasuke's breathing the only sound as he slept peacefully within the sheets.

Naruto approached the foot of the bed sheepishly as Sakura began to wrap Sasuke's arm with a fresh bandage.

"How's he doing?" the blonde asked after a pause. Sakura flicked him a furtive glance as she finished tying off the bandage, slid away from her patient's side and rose to her feet. She smoothed a hand through her hair and brushed the wrinkles from her skirt, but Naruto could still see the gears shifting within her narrowed viridians.

"He's okay," she allowed finally, her eyes flickering over their teammate's slumbering form before she motioned for Naruto to follow her out to the deck. He slid the glass door shut behind them and joined her at the railing, loosing a sigh as the wind tugged as his jacket.

"I hate seeing my friends like that," said the blonde through gritted teeth. Sakura nodded slowly, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "I shouldn't have let the old geezers send him out in the first place."

"You weren't going to stop him, Naruto," said Sakura. "He was out here on his own terms, and nothing you—or I—could say would have changed it."

The rosette allowed her fingers to trail to her forehead, where she traced absent circles. She could still feel the imprint of his goodbye, before his first departure. The hesitant smile of his, whose memory she still questioned. She quickly dropped her hand when she caught Naruto watching her out of the corner of his eye. He grinned.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Sakura-chan," he said, his blue eyes glimmering. Sakura rolled her eyes, flicking his arm.

"It's not my place," she said, after a pause. When Naruto tilted his head in question, she continued. "He's had too much suffering and too much taken away for us to get in the way now. If this is what he needs, I'm not going to stop him."

Even as the words left her mouth, they sounded mechanical. Her blonde teammate frowned.

"As if Teme knows what he needs," he chuckled. Then he stopped suddenly, puckering his lips in thought. "What do you need, Sakura-chan?"

She blinked, cheeks glowing. "What do you mean?"

"You want him in the village more, right?" he asked. His eyes were wide with an innocent curiosity. Sakura felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.

"Don't be ridiculous," huffed Sakura, shaking her head critically.

"Is it ridiculous?"

"Yes, Naruto. You're being ridiculous. It's just not my call," said Sakura, her tone edging on frustrated. "He's protecting the village.

"Getting himself blown up doesn't protect anyone," Naruto muttered, running a hand through his thick hair. "And he can definitely spend more time at home. How else are the two of you ever going to bo—"

Sakura's fist connected with Naruto's cheek, and he sprawled onto the porch.

"And here I thought you were trying to have a serious conversation," Sakura spat. Talking about her sex life, or lack thereof, with Naruto was the very last thing she felt like doing at that moment.

"This _is_ a serious conversation," Naruto mewled, pulling himself to his feet as he rubbed the welt on his face.

Sakura raised her eyebrow menacingly, folding her arms across her chest.

"Ok, ok. I'll drop it," moped Naruto. He paused, his voice lowering into something more serious. "How's he doing?"

Sakura scrutinized him for a moment before answering. "His chakra is still really low, and I think he needs some time to sift through the trauma. His wounds are healing well, though. Slowly, but well," Sakura said evenly, her eyes flecked with gray as she surveyed the sea at their feet. A devious grin spread across Naruto's chin.

"Does this mean we're sending Teme to a shrink?" he gurgled gleefully. His grin barely had time to reach his whiskers before Sakura's fist collided with his nose, sprawling him into the far railing.

"You're such an idiot," she snarled.

Naruto was staring at her with his head cocked to the side. She could tell by the uncertainty glimmering in his eyes that she was getting too worked up, but she had no intention of slowing down.

"The body has a natural reaction to this much stress, to these kinds of traumas," she continued. "Poke fun _one more time_ , and I will beat your ass until med evac has to come pick your ass up, too."

Naruto squirmed against the far side of the porch, expression screwed tight. "So protective, Sakura-chan," he muttered. Sakura rose her fist in a fake lunge, and he shrunk away.

"You're the only one who needs to see a shrink, Dobe," intoned a voice suddenly.

Both whipped around to find Sasuke leaning against the doorway, having slipped open the glass door so quietly that neither teammate had heard his approach.

He wore the long white robe that Suigetsu had procured the previous day, and had tied it loosely around his waist. His arms were folded across his chest, his dark eyes glittering dangerously. Sakura thought she detected a flicker of amusement cross his face, but it could have just as easily been a trick of the light.

"I am perfectly stable, bastard," shot Naruto, squaring up in front of Sasuke with a deep frown carved into his cheeks. "And you're the one whose ass we had to save after a C-ranked mission." Sasuke had quite a few inches over his teammate, to which Naruto responded by lurching onto his tiptoes and scowling.

"Sounds like you're taking credit for a mission you had nothing to do with," Sasuke replied coolly, his obsidians flickering past Naruto's shoulder to catch Sakura's gaze.

Sakura felt a sheepish smile creep across her cheeks and adjusted the knot in her headband.

"I still travelled across the country to keep your ass in line," Naruto stammered, jabbing Sasuke in the chest with his pointer finger. "Don't you forget it, teme."

With that, Naruto barreled past Sasuke, slamming the bedroom door behind himself. Sasuke didn't bother to watch him go, his dark eyes trained on the water, observing the waves smash against the cliffs surrounding them with a distant fondness.

"You didn't have to do that, you know. Giving me credit," murmured Sakura, folding her arms as she turned back toward the ocean. She felt him approach from behind, her eyes sliding toward him as he joined her at the railing, his hand gripping the smooth metal. She noticed his jawline was set, eyes clouded. His movements were sluggish, the dark circles persisting beneath his eyes, and she detected a hitch in his step when he placed weight on his knee. He flashed a glance in her direction, catching her eye.

"You're making a face," he observed, his expression unchanging. She felt her cheeks flush and looked away quickly, biting her lip.

"I was not," she sputtered, refusing to meet the weight of his gaze.

"Sakura," he said after a stretch of silence, his tone shifting from guarded to something a little less so. Softened, almost. She turned toward him and found him leaned over the railing, his expression tightened. His obsidians slid to capture her gaze.

"What happened in there?"

She knew by his expression, by the flicker of discomfort and the scowl he made after he said it, that he wasn't talking about Naruto, or her medical treatment. Her mind fluttered to the hideout, to his gray body on the gurney and the surge of panic in her throat. She swallowed the memory, knowing that it would betray in her expression. Instead, she clasped her fingers to the railing and looked away from him, exhaling sharply.

"Didn't Suigetsu tell you?" she asked, her voice louder than she'd meant it to be. Internally, she oscillated between speaking to him as his doctor and as his…

Friend?

Sasuke shrugged, his dark eyes steely and expectant as they bore into hers.

"Your heart stopped," Sakura said after a heavy pause. "So, I restarted it."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he studied her. Even as she withdrew into herself, avoiding his stare and pressing herself against the railing, she knew he could sense the rest of the story lying in wait. A story that she didn't want to dig up just yet. Although he seemed to be his usual, monosyllabic self, she could sense that his demeanor was off-kilter.

Sakura allowed herself to sneak a glance at his face, and found him fiddling with the tie of his robe, his gaze unfocused among rocks below. He looked almost perplexed, as if picking apart some puzzle within the seafoam just evading his grasp. His brow knit together, his teeth grinding in his jaw as he dropped the fabric and tapped his knuckles against the railing.

"How did my heart stop?" he asked suddenly, tilting his head toward her. His bangs slid away from his face, revealing a mismatched stare. Her face grew hot with the intensity with which he watched her.

"You were drowned," she said quietly. She felt him stiffen beside her. A rolling wave smashed into the cliffs below, the last licks of spray catching in the air around them. "We found you in a submersion tank," she continued, her voice strangely detached, as if she were talking to a patient, a perfect stranger. "In this hideout that Juugo was able to find. We were lucky—we fought our way through, and Hinata found you almost immediately."

Sasuke exhaled sharply, leaning over the railing so that the wind tugged at his hair. The sun poked out for a moment from behind a swash of clouds, only to disappear.

"Did you get a look at him?" he asked without turning around.

"The red shinobi?" Sasuke nodded stiffly.

"No, wore a mask and teleported before we could get him." Sakura pulled her hair into a pony tail as she spoke, careful to catch all of the loose threads.

"And the other?" Sakura tilted her head curiously at the question.

"There were two," explained Sasuke quietly, almost just to himself. Sakura shook her head.

"We wrote up a mission brief. Hinata should have it, if you want more details," she offered quietly.

Sasuke tossed a glare over his shoulder, the calmness with which he had stared at the ocean shattered in an instant. His obsidian eye glowed dangerously, his mouth set in a thin line. Sakura blinked, stepping back in surprise.

"What?" she asked. "Is there something wrong with the brief?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and turned to go inside. Before he could slide past her, she snatched her grip around his upper arm. She felt his chakra spike and his bicep tense in surprise. His skin was liquid hot, even through his robe.

He slapped her hand away, and when his eyes flashed to hers they were seething. Glowing dangerously with a fire that slashed into hers with visceral _hate_ that shocked her _._ He yanked his arm from her grasp and slid past her into the room beyond.

"You should have gone after them," he stated coldly, pausing in the entryway with his back to her. Sakura felt ice ripple through her stomach. Wind curled through her hair, pushing it in front of her eyes. She barely noticed.

"You would have died," she whispered. At this, he glanced over his shoulder. His single, obsidian eye looked her up and down with a sharp acuity, never meeting her eyes.

"You let them escape." He slipped into the darkness of his room without a sound.

Sakura leaned into the railing, her breath hitching in her through. Her vision blurred, and she quickly smudged away the tears that bubbled over her cheeks. Her fingers trembled as she clenched them into fists.

All she wanted was to protect him. To stand by his side and be a part of his life, however she could. She'd sprinted across the country, risked her life in enemy territory, and used every shred of energy and self she had to put him back together. She'd cried for him, held him in her arms, fought for him.

And he resented her for it. In his eyes, he wasn't worth saving.

This Sasuke—this Sasuke who was still so far from self redemption, so full of rage yet so uncertain of himself and of his value—was an unknown to her. He was a stranger.

* * *

 **A/N**

I'm sorry for my disappearance! Life REALLY got ahead of me, in a good way.

I finally got my knee right (like, I haven't been able to walk properly for 2+ years and HIKING and RUNNING and NORMALCY are so freakin' cool, my dudes) only to get a gnarly stress fracture in my foot (like, what?) so I'm back for the foreseeable future. My life is whack. If anyone needs some orthopedic advice, definitely hit me up. I'm a wealth of useless medical knowledge.

Eek. ANYWAY I hope you like this chapter! I plan to update with the next one pretty quick here.

Cheers & lots of love,

Indigo


	10. Diamonds

**Chapter 10 - Diamonds**

* * *

Three shuriken sliced through their mark in rapid succession, embedding in the center of a poorly-carved target. The pinkette kunoichi then dove her hand into the kit at her waist and rocketed a pair of kunai across the clearing, a smirk rising to her lips as they whistled past the shuriken and dug deep into the tree's bark.

A line of sweat slid past her temple and she smudged it away with her gloved hand, eyes flickering around the clearing. Her breath heaved as she skipped back a few yards, removing her gloves before pulling her shirt over her head and discarding it to the side. A breeze tugged through the trees, instantly cool against her exposed abdomen, her sports bra soaked through with sweat. She let her head roll back against her neck, chin pressed to the sky, taking in the gentle whispers of clouds against the blue.

"One more round?" Sakura called over her shoulder, straightening up as she turned a glance at her teammate behind her. Suigetsu rolled his eyes from where he observed, lounging in the shade.

"Don't you get tired, Pinky?" he drawled, chewing on the straw of his water bottle with his silvery hues averted. He slurped up the dregs and threw the empty container to the side with a scowl.

"Is that a no?" the kunoichi challenged. The mist nin swore under his breath, rubbing his face in his hands. He then hauled himself to his feet, hefting his massive blade onto his shoulder and nearly buckling beneath its weight. He ran his finger along its edges, eying a few smudges that appeared to mar the surface, and shrugged noncommittally before sauntering toward Sakura.

"As much as I would love to spar with you a little while longer..." he purred as he neared her, his hand whipping around to draw a suggestive line along her exposed navel, his fingertips callused and rough against her skin. "I've got to run perimeter—"

Sakura's fist smashed into his face before he could finish, sprawling him across the clearing in a flurry of rain drops. He skidded across the ground with a splash, his body dissolving into a collection of dispersed puddles. The rosette stepped back, her fist still hissing with emerald chakra as she glared at what was left of the white-haired man.

"No fair," Suigetsu gurgled as his face emerged from the puddle. He pulled himself together again, his form wavering as he shook water from his hair and shot her a toothy frown. "You snuck up on me."

"Touch me like that again and I'll show you unfair," Sakura shot back. She yanked her shirt back on and tossed him a middle finger.

Suigetsu ignored the gesture and pulled himself to his feet, wiping his hands on his pants. "Sorry, Pinky," he called back before hopping into the branches of the nearest tree. He cast her a friendly salute before leaping to the next canopy and out of sight.

Sakura shivered as he disappeared from view. A cool breeze tugged at her strawberry locks until they blurred her vision. She tossed it back over shoulder, her hand then drifting to the pouch at her hip, where she drew her own canteen. She took a long drag from it, then splashed some water onto her face. Her muscles burned from fatigue, her mind swimming in a fuzzy rush of endorphins. She lowered herself to lean against the nearest tree and looked out over the makeshift training grounds, eyes alighting across the torn earth and scattered puddles. She allowed a small grin to spread across her cheeks and took another sip of her water.

Another chakra signature approached quietly from behind her, and Sakura glanced up to see Juugo appearing from where Suigetsu had replaced him. He blocked the dappled sunlight from above her for a moment before stepping out of the way.

"Sakura-san," he greeted quietly, bowing his head.

"Hey, Juugo," said Sakura, motioning for him to join her on the ground. He folded himself next to her, a small sparrow peering out from his shoulder. The shinobi's amber eyes glittered as he lay down onto his back, peering up at the blue sky with the whispers of a smile. He folded his hands across his belly.

"Training?" he asked, gesturing at the clearing spread before them.

"Yeah," the kunoichi answered. She massaged a knot in her thigh with her fingers as she spoke, a furrow forming between her brows. "I had to a get some things out."

As the words entered the air, she wasn't sure why she'd told him that. Something about Juugo's gentle demeanor lulled her into a security she couldn't put her finger on. He was always so genuine, so innocent in his desire to connect with people, that she couldn't help but to be honest with him. He was a little like Sai in his social naivety, but with a kinder, gentler approach to this unknown world of human interactions. He certainly would never call her ugly.

"Are you alright, Sakura-san?" he asked, turning his head toward her so that he rested his cheek in the grass. She nodded stiffly.

"Yeah," she sighed. Juugo tilted his head back up to the sky, waiting for her to continue.

"Can I ask you something? " she asked quietly. When he nodded, she continued: "Do you think we did the right thing? Rescuing Sasuke, instead of going after those men."

Sakura's voice quivered. When she glanced to her lap, she found her hands trembling, too. She stowed them quickly into her pockets.

This self-doubt swirling in her chest was something she'd spent many years running from. She'd built walls with all of the confidence she'd earned since being a genin, yet something about Sasuke brought them tumbling right back down again. She believed fully in her decision-making process, and in her choice to rush in and save him during this most recent mission. Yet, the more she turned it over in her more, the more she realized how questionably she'd made that very decision. Sasuke clouded everything. He skewed her judgement, he threw her off kilter. He was this gravitational force in her life, pulling all of these different parts of herself in a direction she hadn't accounted for.

"Yes," Juugo answered without hesitating, breaking through her trance. "He is too valuable an asset, and we did not have enough intel to risk pursuit." He paused, visibly uncertain with the words that followed. "He is also my friend. I don't want him to die."

Sakura exhaled deliberately and rocked onto her tailbone, hugging her knees to her chest. She bit her lip and pressed it against her thigh, letting her eyes close gratefully.

"Thank you, Juugo," she murmured, tilting her head toward him. He nodded, his expression still wavering with concern.

"Why do you ask, Sakura-san?" he asked.

"I'm worried… that he didn't want to be saved," she breathed, hanging her head in her hands.

What was she even saying? Sasuke didn't _want_ to die—it wasn't an active desire, by any stretch. He just didn't think he deserved to _live_. If protecting the village meant sacrificing his own life, he would do it without question, even if the same result were possible without such death.

"Why?" asked Juugo, slowly. Sakura described what Sasuke had told her that morning, her tone heavy. When she finished, Juugo reached out and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, patting it awkwardly.

"Don't worry, Sakura-san," he said at last, golden eyes twinkling as he flashed a rare smile. "Give him time. He'll come around."

The rosette allowed a small smile, and nodded.

* * *

Sakura hiked up the hideout staircase and reached her chakra out ahead of her. She felt the bubbles of her teammates' chakra flare into her peripheral above, clustered together in one room. She locked the door behind her, tossed her weapons pouch onto her bed on the way in and tiptoed her way down the hall toward the common area. The house had fallen into a sleepy silence that she wished not to disturb.

As she rounded a corner, light spilled in from the surrounding windows across the sitting area. The blinds were pulled open, allowing the sparkling view of the sea and horizon to come right up to the glass. The kunoichi paused, blinking back surprise as Hinata peeked up from her seat on the couch and beamed.

"Sakura-chan!" she whispered, her voice soft and excited. Sakura approached cautiously, unable to stop the grin that spread across her cheeks as she took in the Hyuuga's companions.

Naruto was sprawled on the carpet at Hinata's feet with his eyes closed, mouth opened hazardously. His arms and legs spread wide, his hair in disarray, while drool dribbled down his chin. His fingers twitched every so often, and Sakura could hear him snoring softly.

Hinata was nestled into the couch, an open book in one hand, the other hand dragging circles through a certain dark-haired shinobi's hair. The rest of Sasuke lay horizontal on the cushions, his face turned toward the windows, propped up on a pillow against Hinata's knee.

He, too, was asleep, his eyes closed and expression blank, dark tresses tousled and dampened from a recent shower, framing his porcelain jawline. He wore a pair of loose gray joggers and a navy v-neck that hitched up to expose the crisscross of scars and bandages around his abdomen. His chest rose and fell with each breath, a loose bit of hair fluttering before his face. Sakura couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

"They fell asleep like this, and I didn't have the heart to move them," Hinata murmured, closing her book and placing it on the coffee table. Sakura propped herself in the nearest chair, watching the boys sleep with eyebrows raised.

"How on earth…?" she wondered aloud, unable to hide her surprise. Sasuke wasn't one for group settings, and she couldn't imagine him willingly sleeping in the same room as Hinata and Naruto, particularly with Hinata sitting just next to him.

"Naruto-kun got him out here for lunch," Hinata explained, gesturing toward the kitchen. Sakura spied sandwich remnants scattered across the counter.

"Did he eat?" asked the rosette.

"Yes. Some food, and one of those shakes you made," Hinata replied. Sakura had spent a fair chunk of her morning preparing nutritional shakes, dense with vitamins and calories, to supplement with meals until Sasuke was on his feet again. She'd made her favorite recipe this time around, which included healthy servings of almond butter, pineapple, spinach and tasteless multivitamin dose packs.

"We were going to play cards, but he started to look a little queasy. I gave him some medicine, which appears to have knocked him right out…" said Hinata, peering into Sasuke's face as she spoke. "Naruto followed suit. He'll take any excuse for a cat nap, these days."

Sakura got to her feet and touched the back of her hand to Sasuke's forehead. He stirred, but didn't wake.

"He has a slight fever," Sakura murmured. "Probably his body fighting off the last of the infection."

Hinata pursed her lips, considering this. "We heard back from Konoha, while you were out," she said, changing subjects. "They're requesting our immediate return, and are sending a separate unit to make sure he's stabilized to do so."

Sakura frowned, her concern flaring. "What kind of unit?" she asked.

"It wasn't clear, in the letter. They're definitely not medical—I think they're part of the interrogation ops."

Sakura exhaled sharply, touching her fingers to her face as her mind scrambled to make sense of it. She shuddered at the thought of Morino Ibiki shouldering his way into the hideout and dragging his favorite ex-rogue nin off to do as he pleased.

That was the very last thing this failure-of-a-mission needed. Sasuke was nearly stable enough for transport, and she had no interest in handing over her leadership position to a bunch of trigger-happy ANBU interrogators. Her rage must have shown on her face.

"Swap places with me," said Hinata, suddenly. Before the rosette could protest, the Hyuuga prodigy slid out from beneath Sasuke's pillow, holding it up with her hands so as not to disturb him. Sakura quickly replaced her, blinking as the weight of Sasuke's head fell into her lap.

Delicately, she swept his hair from his face and placed her hands over his eyes, and send a pulse of chakra through his system.

She explored his channels one by one, feeling out his internal injuries for progress. His chakra reserves were still unfortunately low, although that wasn't particularly abnormal given his circumstances. What small pool of chakra he did possess was concentrated on his healing wounds, so she channelled her energy there and allowed healing chakra to pulse through in waves.

When she finished, she allowed her hands to tangle in his hair. It felt thick and soft against her fingertips, smelling faintly of pine, and she allowed herself to draw circles on his scalp. He shifted in his sleep, his expression softening as he eased into her touch.

Across the room, Hinata had lowered herself to the carpet, joining Naruto with her legs folded. She touched his shoulder gently, and shook him when he didn't respond. He forced open his cerulean eyes, his gaze wandering over her face before he pulled himself into a seat.

"How long was I out?" he mumbled, wiping drool from his chin.

"Not long, dear," said Hinata, pulling him to standing. "But let's get you into a proper bed."

With that, she lead him sleep-walking into a bedroom down the hall. Sakura heard the door close quietly, and turned back to look at Sasuke.

Two mismatched eyes met her gaze.

A gasp lodged itself in her throat, and her hands froze in place within his hair. He lay so close that she could see her reflection in his obsidian-and-lavender hues, and her hair nearly grazed his cheek. A flicker of bewilderment passed through his stare, and he blinked back sleep to get a better look at her.

"Sakura," he said, more of a statement than it was a question. He pushed himself up, leaning against the couch as he looked back at her over his shoulder.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice more quiet than usual. He turned away and ran a hand through his hair.

"Fine," he said shortly.

"Hinata said you weren't well, earlier," she offered quietly. He shrugged noncommittally.

"I think you're wrong, you know," she said after a beat, her voice unwavering and fiery. He turned to cast a look at her over one shoulder, his obsidian eye hazy and uninterested.

"We made the right call, rescuing you. I would do it again, a hundred times over, if given the chance," she stated. She rose to her feet, her hands curled into fists as she stepped past him toward the kitchen.

She could feel the weight of his stare pouring into her back. She fumbled with the items Hinata had left out, filing dishes in the washer, sealing and stowing food, wiping down the counter. She kept her eyes down, on the tasks, ignoring him and the frustration bubbling up in her chest.

Sakura yanked open the fridge to grab something to eat for herself, and looked up to find Sasuke suddenly blocking her way. His one arm pressed against the fridge, keeping the door closed, gazing down at her with the full weight of his stare. His eye gleamed darkly, his expression tense, jaw set in tightened angles. She squared up towards him, hands on her hips, glaring up at him with as much defiance as she could muster.

He took a step forward, closing the gap between them. Sakura's cheeks grew warm, her heart hammering in her throat.

"Okay," he said.

Sakura's eyes widened, realizing her mouth had fallen open. She snapped it shut, and drew a hand to her chest. He tilted his head to the side, a flicker of amusement passing across his features. A slight depression appeared between his brows as he gauged her reaction.

"Okay?" she echoed.

"You were right," he started slowly, dragging his fingers through his hair. "Not to go after them."

His gaze flickered away from hers, his hand withdrawing from the fridge as he shifted his weight onto his opposite foot. Sakura observed him with eyes narrowed in suspicion, then boldly took a step, closing the gap further.

"Are you just saying that because you don't think I could take them?" she dared. Although her tone was deadly serious, a flicker of a smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. She placed her hands on her hips, eyebrow raised.

Sasuke's brow matched hers.

"You're annoying," he breathed. He tapped her forehead, pushing her back with just a flare of playfulness, before turning and exiting the kitchen. Sakura blinked after him, hand moving mechanically to touch her forehead, smiling to herself. Her eyes never left his retreating back as she pulled open the refrigerator and withdrew an apple. She bit into it as she crossed the kitchen after him.

When she joined him, Sasuke was folded on the carpet, laying out cards on the coffee table. A slight frown suspended across his features. The process could have used two hands.

"What are we playing?" asked Sakura, peering over his shoulder. He slanted his eyes at her disapprovingly, hunching his back slightly.

"Solitaire."

"That's not a two person game," she pointed out with a grin.

He cast her a pointed look, but snaked out his hands and pulled back the cards he'd laid out into the deck. He shuffled them against his chest, eyeing her as she settled herself on the couch across from him.

"Blackjack?" Sakura mused. "War? Go Fish?"

Sasuke shook his head without answering, and proceeded to deal for a game of War. Sakura took her half of the deck and shuffled it, eyes glinting with a greedy competitiveness.

"Went for the game of luck, I see," observed Sakura as they each flipped cards over and compared. She slid her winnings to the side, smiling triumphantly. "Didn't think you could beat me at strategy?"

Sasuke's eyes flicked up to catch hers, a little less amused than she would have hoped.

"Hardly," he muttered.

They played in silence for a time. Cards slapping against the table, Sakura nibbling at her apple, the distant rush of waves outside the windows. Their stacks of cards oscillated, but Sasuke's was the clear standout.

"Please be an Ace—!" hissed Sakura as she smacked her last card on the table. Sasuke swiped her three-of-clubs with a queen-of-diamonds, dangling it between two fingers for a moment, before tossing it in his pile.

"Drat," she lamented, throwing herself against the back of the couch. She twirled a stray lock of hair around her finger, watching the coil unravel against her shirt.

"You're in a good mood," Sasuke observed, sliding the cards into their box and replacing it on the table evenly. His eyes slid up to catch hers as her cheeks flushed scarlet and she looked away. He watched her for a moment before laying out on his back, staring up at the ceiling with his hand propping up his head.

"Should I not be?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest. His shoulders moved against the carpet in what she could only assume was a shrug.

Sakura shook her head and ran a hand through her hair, aware that the light had begun to dim outside the windows. She picked herself up from the couch, aware of Sasuke's eyes sliding to track her as she crossed the living room, and popped down onto the carpet beside him. She sat cross-legged, elbows on her knees to support her chin in her hands. She faced him directly, and he glowered at the ceiling in turn.

"Sasuke-kun?" she asked quietly, peering over her fingers at him. His lavender eye slid over to meet hers, darting about her face in question.

"What?" he asked.

"There's an interrogation unit heading our way," she said, her voice hollow. "And I'm worried about what they're going to ask."

"What are they going to ask?"

This time, it was Sakura's turn not to respond. She looked away from him to the ocean and shrugged.

"Are you worried about what they're going to ask, or what the answers will be?" asked Sasuke suddenly. She looked sharply back to find him with his cheek on the carpet, staring intently at her.

"...the answers," she said quietly, looking down at her feet.

"Then ask, now."

"What should I ask?"

"Anything."

Sakura watched him as he returned his gaze to the ceiling, waiting for her to speak. Quietly, she lowered herself to the carpet beside him, an arms length away, and stared up at that same ceiling from her back. She heard him shifting in place, but chose instead to let her mind wander through the wooden beams and open skylight above.

"Can you feel them, in your head, right now?" she murmured.

"No," he answered, his voice cold. Another pause.

"Could they could work… from a long distance? And phase into your head without warning?"

"I don't think so," he answered, his voice rumbling deep in his throat.

"Why not?" Sakura asked.

"They would have done it already."

"So, we're safe?"

"For now," he breathed.

"Okay," Sakura hummed in relief. "How do you feel, otherwise?"

"Better, now," he said. She let that answer stand.

"Will you come back to the village after this?" she asked. She heard him rustle against the carpet, but he made no reply.

Her shoulders tensed suddenly as his hand brushed hers. She rested her cheek on the carpet to find him looking at her with a flicker of amusement in his eye. She allowed him the smallest of smiles, her high cheekbones flushing red. She extended her fingertips until they brushed his again, and when he didn't withdraw, she continued to brush against his fingers, finding electricity in the contact.

Sasuke turned his gaze toward the ceiling again, but didn't flinch when she laced her fingers in with his. Instead, he closed his eyes, and she watched as his shoulders eased back into the floor, a whisper of a smile on his face. Outside, the glows of the sunset doused the room in shades of orange and pink. They lay amongst the watercolors until they shifted into the darkness of evening, their fingers grazing and their breathes stilling.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, turning to look out the windows at the star silhouettes blinking on in the darkness.

"Hm."

"Do you think… those shinobi will come back?" she asked, without looking back at him. She heard him exhale, and she closed her free hand into a fist against the carpet. He nodded.

"When?" Her voice barely a whisper.

"Soon," he said. He squeezed her hand, and didn't let go.

* * *

 **A/N**

Thank you to my lovely reviewers! Your thoughts from last chapter made me feel all the warm fuzzies. :3 You're a very sweet bunch, and I love hearing from you.

Next week is going to slow down a little for me (thank goodness), so I should have time to write the next few chapters and get them to you soon! Can't wait. This story is about to heat up, my dudes.

Thank you for reading, and do drop me a note if you ever want to say hello!

-Indigo


	11. Clarity

**Chapter 11 — Clarity**

* * *

A stampede of heavy soles jarred the kunoichi from sleep. She held still, one ear to the pillow, the other listening intently as three pairs of footsteps reverberated one-by-one past her door. She held her breath as the final intruder passed, waiting for the next revealing sound. Her chest jolted as she heard a door down the hall flung open on its hinges, then another jostle of steps.

At once, Sakura wrenched back her sheets and fumbled in the dark for the clothing she knew to be strewn across the carpet. She wrangled a dress over her head and tugged it past her legs as she yanked the bedroom door open, dragging fingers through her hair as her eyes leaped from face to face at the group that met her in the hallway. They turned to examine her through slitted ANBU masks.

The shinobi nearest her had a sweep of blonde hair, pulled high atop her head in a coil that snaked around her upper arm as she spun around. Sakura recognized her instantly. In one movement, the kunoichi had removed her mask to reveal a smug grin.

"Hey, Forehead," Ino hummed, fiddling the mask between her fingers as she moved forward to give Sakura's hand a tentative squeeze. Sakura's expression knitted together as she regarded her childhood friend, finding the blonde's eyes gray with exhaustion and uncertainty. Standing just past Ino's shoulder stood the hulking figure of Morino Ibiki, who shook his head with disapproval as he disappeared through the open doorway at his side. Sasuke's doorway.

Ino's father, Yamanaka Inoichi, stood to her other side, his eyes flickering behind the mask as he followed his male counterpart into the room, his pace swift and assertive. Sakura took a step after them, but Ino swept out a hand to stop her.

"We have our orders," she offered quietly. Sakura's shoulders fell, her eyes flashing from her friend's to the darkened entryway. She needed to protect him. She needed to be in there with him.

She heard a flicker of movement behind her, and tilted her head to find Naruto approaching, shirtless and with sweatpants that fell too loosely to his waist. Hinata trailed in his wake, a white nightgown clinging to her hips. Footsteps in the kitchen alerted to the presence of Juugo, who wavered silently in the dark, his massive hands gripping a glass of water.

Another stutter of movement, and a new figure appeared silently in Sasuke's doorway, surveying them in sleepy silence. Raven-hair tousled and uneven, jaw set in an angular frown, dark eyes glinting as he finished tugging a shirt past his stomach. Sleep hung under his eyes in violet circles as he shifted a glance from Sakura to Naruto, who now stood just behind her. Sasuke shook his head in a barely perceptible movement, dragging his hand through his hair before moving further into the hall, his steps even and quiet, eyes on the floor.

Ibiki lumbered after him, with Inoichi gliding in in his wake. Neither shinobi had removed their masks, and Ino quickly replaced hers to match, jogging after her teammates as they followed Sasuke down the hall. They group disappeared down the stairwell whence they'd came, followed by the creak and slam of the basement door beneath.

Naruto shifted his weight, eyes clouded as Hinata threaded her fingers through his. Her silvery gaze met Sakura's.

"I'll make tea," muttered the rosette, rolling on her heels and slipping past Juugo into the kitchen. She flicked on the lights and began to fill the kettle at the sink. A glance out the window in front of her, with the moon and its reflection suspended within a blackened sky and sea, told her morning was far from its approach. She slammed the pot onto the stove top and fumbled with the dial until the click-click-click of the ignitor burst to life. She gazed into the violet flames that licked up along the edges of the pot, arms heavy at her side.

Sakura stood there until the kettle whistled desperately. She didn't move to silence it. She just listened to it wailing through the darkened kitchen, steam spewing from its crevasse, until someone else's hand reached past hers, turning the dial until the kettle quieted.

Sakura glanced up to find Naruto's eyes on the dimming steam, narrowed and clouded, before he turned and exited the kitchen.

* * *

Sasuke lead the way through the hideout's lower level, his hand buried in his pocket. Orochimaru rarely spared expense when it came to his hideouts, and the dungeons here were no exception. Massive snake carvings twisted across the walls, poised to devour the lights bolted into the ceilings. He was aware of the irony in his actions, as he led the way to what would become his own prison.

He stopped at the first door he reached, eyes wavering to the three ANBU stationed at his back. Even without his sharingan activated, he could sense the different emotions staggered between them—Ibiki's chakra flickered with unfettered rage, while Ino and her father's were more subdued, vigilant.

Sasuke pushed the door open with his toes, distantly grateful that he'd had the presence of mind to throw on a pair of shoes when the team had charged into the hideout. He hadn't been able to sleep that night, so had waited for their approach from his porch. He'd sensed them from the minute Suigetsu had let them through his perimeter, and had tracked them from the forest to the beach, then up through the hideout's entryway door. Sasuke had waited for them calmly—he'd already faced his worst nightmares made reality, and he did not fear torture. Particularly torture wrought by the likes of Morino Ibiki.

The room to which Sasuke had lead the interrogation team was a standard layout for Orochimaru's dungeons. It had been divided into two sections, one cell area separated by a line of bars, and the rest filled with assorted lab equipment. This one included a desktop covered in a sheet, a neat desk, a series of drawers whose contacts were locked, and a cluster of chairs around an empty table. Two of the three ANBU shinobi entered behind Sasuke while Ino remained outside, assumingly to keep watch.

Sasuke's eyes flickered to meet Ibiki's as the interrogator's hand closed around his arm. Sasuke exhaled sharply, but allowed the man to lead him into the cell without conflict. Once in the cell, he lowered himself to sit on the single cot and closed his eyes. Ibiki slapped a seal across his eyes, tying it too tightly through his dark tresses. They bound his feet together too, then his arm to his chest. Sasuke heard the cell door slam shut, followed by the twist of the key in its lock.

"Alright, Uchiha," came Morino Ibiki's low voice. "Give us your story."

Sasuke took a deep breath and began.

* * *

The kettle whistled on the stovetop for the second time that morning. It coughed steam toward the ceiling in frantic bursts until Sakura slammed it onto an unlit burner and spun the dial.

"Tea, anyone?" she barked. Without waiting for response, she yanked mugs from the nearest cabinet and filled them hazardously, sloshing water across the counter before dropping unlabeled tea bags into each. She slid the mugs across the marble toward their respective recipients.

"Thanks," mumbled Naruto, rubbing sleep from his half-lidded eyes before gripping the mug in his palms. Hinata smiled her gratitude, touching her shoulder to his. Sakura leaned over the counter, blowing on the hot water before taking a sip that burnt her tongue.

Ashen light began to filter across the room as dawn rose to the east. No one had been able to sleep after the interrogation op's arrival, so instead they'd filed into the darkened living room. Juugo perched stalky still on the leather chair, eyes trained cold on the carpet. Sakura hovering over the stove, Hinata and Naruto trading mumbles across the counter.

The pinkette kunoichi moved to the center of the room, gripping her mug with white knuckles as her eyes darted to each of her teammates.

"We need to prepare for our departure," she announced. Naruto's eyes flickered toward her, his frown deepening as he pushed himself to his feet. Hinata spun in her chair, nodding. Juugo didn't appear to have heard.

"The interrogation team is to take it from here. We've been instructed to split up—Taka, you are to remain here should enemy shinobi track our location. Hinata, Naruto—we are to retreat to Konoha until additional field teams gather intel for a counter strike."

Sakura opened her mouth to continue, but was stopped when something rang out across the room. Everyone froze. The team's radio, which had sat unmoving on the counter since their arrival, was vibrating frantically. It rang again, followed by more of its buzzing against the marble.

Hinata's hand flashed as she snatched it up and brought it before her, pressing the button to speak.

"Suigetsu?" she called into it. The radio went silent, before the buzzy static of the other end came through.

"Suitgetsu to base," came the toothy man's response. "We've got a breach. I repeat, we have a breach. Pre-perimeter wire tripped to the south, motion sensors to the west also going off. There's a lot of them. Approaching the beach."

Sakura hovered at Hinata's side, Naruto crowded in behind. Juugo lumbered over as well, his head cocked to the side.

"Suigetsu, this is Sakura," said the kunoichi as she grasped the radio from Hinata. "Do not engage. I repeat, do not engage. We are coming. Stay hidden."

"You don't know me very well, Pinky," came Suigetsu's answer. "I'm going to take them out and keep the credit all to myself."

The line cut out.

* * *

Inoichi staggered backward, sweat sliding down his temple as he breathed in heavily. Sasuke coughed in a breath, blinking against the seal that bound his eyes as his senses returned to him. There were few worse sensations than the Mind Body Switch Technique, even if it hadn't been entirely successful.

The blonde interrogator scowled and turned away from him, shoving his hands in his pockets as Ibiki took his place before the cell bars.

"Don't make this difficult, Uchiha," the scarred man sneered. Sasuke suppressed the urge to scowl.

"You've asked every question there is to ask," growled the dark-haired prodigy. "If there's anything making this difficult, it's your own inadequacies."

Ibiki's mouth fell open with rage, and he lunged toward the bars. Inoichi stopped him with an outstretched hand.

"He's right, Morino," he said stiffly. "Uchiha is clear, for now."

The hulking man rolled his eyes and sank into a nearby chair, while the blonde man crossed his arms across his chest, surveying their bound prisoner with discontent. He gritted his teeth and touched a finger to his chin.

"There is a strange chakra presence that I detected during my mind-body technique," considered Inoichi slowly, pulling over a chair to sit directly across from his dark-haired interrogatee. "Although faint, it is foreign. I don't trust it."

A flicker of discomfort passed through Sasuke's features. "I feel it, too," he allowed finally, his tone level. Inoichi sighed and straightened up to standing.

"Alright, Sasuke," he said as he rolled out his shoulders and exchanged a look with Ibiki. "In that case, we cannot let you out until we figure out what this is and how to remove it. Sit tight."

A furious knocking sounded at the door, and the three men turned as Ino burst through, green eyes darting frantically across the room. A great rumbling from above shook the room, and the medic stumbled back against the wall as dust fell from the ceiling in waves.

"W-we're under attack!" cried the blonde as she leaped from the room. Ibiki marched after her, his eyes narrowed to slits. Her father followed suit.

"You better stay here, Sasuke-kun," he said slowly, casting an apologetic look to the man in the cell before slamming the door shut and hurrying after his teammates. Sasuke stared blankly into his mask, fury bubbling up from his chest as he smashed his shoulder into the wall beside him.

 _Fuck._

* * *

Sakura's fist connected with the shinobi nearest her, sending him sprawling into his counterpart and out of sight in the trees. Hinata darted and parried with a trio of enemies across the beach, and Juugo and Suigetsu were tag-teaming against a particularly large and burly shinobi above them in the cliffs.

With each enemy that fell, more appeared from the trees and down the beach. Each one had the same, vacant look, their movements lurchingly fast and unpredictable. They weren't remarkably strong, but their numbers were great, with no signs of slowing.

The rosette lunged forward, driving her knee into the nearest shin obi's chest and spinning to land another hit to an enemy behind him. Both crumbled to the sand, and as she moved to overtake the next few enemies, three kunai soared toward her. She tucked and rolled to the side, her hands diving into her weapons pouch and launching a stream of shuriken toward the enemy line. Three man fell, weapons embedded in their chests.

A sizzle of lightning slashed through the air in front of Sakura, and she leaped back just as an explosion ripped through the air at her feet. The heat of the blast tore through the air as she rose her fists defensively in front of her, blocking the wind from her face as a man in the red cloaked appeared before her.

In a second he was upon her, and she stumbled back in defense. His movements were lightning quick, his skill in taijutsu on par with Lee's, and his ninjutsu technique hissed and burnt against her skin whenever he drew close. Sakura kept up in turn, her fists charged with chakra as she swung and blocked. He was too fast, she needed more space for her attack—

The man landed a kick to her ribs and they crackled beneath the blow. Sakura choked down the sensation and seized the opening to slam a chakra-fused boot into his hip. He flew off toward the water, leaving Sakura's chest heaving as she moved to heal herself, eyes flickering to watch the man pick himself up in the sand. She took the moment to check on her teammates, scattered across the sand in combat.

Naruto's eyes leapt to meet her gaze, even as he fended off a scrabble of enemy shinobi. His chakra was still coiled within his reserves, the kyuubi's ready but not yet activated. Sakura felt Hinata approach from behind her, and she flashed a glance to see the dark-haired kunoichi fending off her own female shinobi.

"Sakura-san," her teammate called, hands poised as her byakugan swirled. "Those men fighting 'Getsu-san and Juugo, they have Konoha vests."

Sakura's eyes narrowed in the direction Hinata pointed. Sure enough, the five shinobi now surrounding their Taka counterparts had green Chuunin vests. Across the beach, the cloaked man rose to his feet. His mask had fallen from his face, revealing a smirk laced with malice.

"They must be the missing shinobi," Sakura whispered, everything falling into place. "T-they must be under his control."

The cloaked man was rushing at her again, and as she spun to avoid another blow she called out orders to the team.

"Disable, do not kill," she yelled as she ducked and tossed a fist toward the cloaked man's ribs. He dodged just in time, hands flying through a series of signs as lightning lanced through the air toward her. She flung her fist into the earth, sending a sheet of sand between her and the onslaught, then sprinted to the side to avoid another.

"You better change that tune," gurgled her attacker.

Sakura's skin prickled, the air around her going suddenly cold. She dropped to a crouch, her chakra rippling through her forearms and flaring past her fingertips in preparation. As the sand and rubble cleared from her attack, her emerald eyes took in Ino, her father and Ibiki across the sand, joining the fray with flashes of ninjutsu.

The ground rumbled beneath her feet, and at once the sea cliffs above them erupted in flames. Shinobi on both sides rushes to avoid the rubble that cascaded onto the beach in waves as flames, black as night, licked out from the gaping hole in the cliff that had once been their hideout.

A figure appeared amongst the flames, swathed in a roaring, violet specter. The air rushed from Sakura's lungs.

" _Sasuke!_ "

It was Naruto's voice that broke her from her reverie as he bellowed up toward the figure. The blonde's chakra flickered amber as he slid his left foot back defensively. His teeth grit, his blue eyes flecked with gold.

The dark-haired figure hopped easily from the ledge, landing on the sand without a sound. He cocked his head to the side and surveyed the blonde. The tomoes of his sharingan swam in insidious circles.

"Sasuke-kun!"

This time Sakura's voice rang out as she staggered toward her teammates across the beach. The Uchiha's eyes flickered to meet hers, narrowing slightly, jawline set. Naruto's hand snapped out for her to stop, and she skidded in the sand, blinking back surprise.

"We don't know who we're dealing with, Sakura," the blonde warned in a whisper. As if in answer, the corner of Sasuke's lips curled into a smirk.

A blur of movement obscured both shinobi from view as Sasuke flash-stepped to Naruto's flank, the sole of his boot connecting with the blonde's ribcage and sending him soaring into the waves. The dark-haired youth straightened up, eyes wandering around the beach as the enemy shinobi began their onslaught upon the Konoha squadron once more.

Naruto pulled himself from the waves, balancing hazardously atop the crests as they rolled toward the shore, his own kyuubi chakra roaring toward the lightening sky.

Naruto leaped to the beach, his expression swelling with fury as he approached Sasuke, who was perched atop a rock with an unusual arrogance painted across his features.

"Give me back my friend!" Naruto roared, stopping short just a few paces from his teammate. Sasuke's head tilted to the side, his raven tresses ruffling in the wind as he stepped lightly to the sand. In a flash, he was at the blonde's side, blue eyes widening in surprise.

"Gladly," Sasuke's voice whispered. His tomoes swirled dangerously as his fingers darted up and tapped Naruto's forehead.

A blinding light consumed both shinobi, obliterating the beach in white. Sakura threw up her hands to protect her eyes, the rest of the brawl frozen in surprise as the flash consumed them. When the flash receded, both bodies were flying in opposite directions—Sasuke's tossed into the cliffs until he crumpled limply at their base, and Naruto's back into the sea, where he sank into the froth with nothing but the sizzle of steam and chakra.

The pinkette darted forward, her feet sliding across the sand as she made her way toward the closest of the two. She could hear the roar of battle picking up again at her back, but her glimmering viridians remained trained on the porcelain features of a certain Uchiha.

His eyes were closed when she reached him, and she dropped to her knees without a word. She shook his shoulder with one hand, the other lighting up with chakra as she quickly assessed for wounds.

Obsidian eyes flickered open. Sakura froze, suddenly unsure of who it was she was looking at as the shinobi's head tilted toward her. Those dark eyes darted over her, a furrow forming between his brows as his jawline tightened. Then, a flutter of recognition.

Sasuke sat up slowly, running a hand through his dark hair as he took stock of the shinobis clashing across the sand.

"You're…yourself again," Sakura breathed, rising carefully to her feet as she brushed the sand from her knees. He nodded without speaking and pulled himself to his feet, his red eyes having landed on a cloaked figure across the beach. His fist clenched against his side as a snarl rippled from his chest.

Before he could take a step, a tower of steam shot up from the waves beyond the sand. A flame of scarlet chakra rose in its wake, a blonde figure swathed within it.

"He's ok," Sakura breathed. Warm fingers closed around hers as she moved toward the water, pulling her back. She shot a glance at Sasuke, but found his expression cold and concentrated, his sharingan darting from the cloaked man to Naruto's approaching form.

"Their goal… was never to catch you," Sakura thought aloud as she noted Naruto's twisted, uncharacteristic smirk. Sasuke's eyes darted to hers as he nodded, his hand falling away from hers as she stilled.

"They wanted Naruto and Kurama all along," she murmured. Her fingers curled into emerald fists. "I can't believe I didn't catch it."

Sasuke's shoulders crackled as he twisted them side to side. "They fooled us both," he muttered. His crimson hues flickered to capture her gaze, and she blinked in surprise to find a strange reassurance twinkling in their depths.

"Don't worry," he muttered, his voice deep. "Take out the guy in the cloak, and I'll handle Naruto."

The corner of his lips twitched in what was almost a smile, and she found herself grinning right back. She nodded, and at once he was flashing forward in a screech of white-blue lightning, and she was leaping across the sand toward the cloaked man, fists on fire.

* * *

 **A/N**

I missed you all! :3 I'm sorry for the delay, and I promise the next update will be swift and sweet! I think it may be the most drama-packed chapter yet... it's all been building to this!

Thank you so much for reading.

xoxo

Indigo


	12. Substitution

**Chapter 12 - Substitute**

* * *

Sakura spat onto the sand, her gloved hands bracing against her knees, chest heaving as she fought to regain her breathe. She tasted the sharpness of iron in her throat as she darted a glance up, sweat sliding along her temples from her hairline. She found her target right where she's left him, leaping back and forth among the sea cliffs above her, struggling to find a stable perch among the rubble she'd just created with her fists. She would have been smug at the disarray, were it not for the charred flesh of her right arm that she'd paid in price.

She shoved the pain away as the prickle of foreign chakra at her flank made her spin, only to identify it as Hinata flash-stepping to her side from the battle down the beach. The kunoichi's silvery eyes blinked from her teammate's injury to the red-cloaked enemy above, and she raised her palms defensively.

"Heal yourself, Sakura-chan," the Hyuuga murmured as she slid in front of the pinkette. "I'll hold him off." Sakura nodded stiffly, her good hand glowing green as she pressed it to the wound. She hissed at pain that landed through to her spine at the contact, but forced herself to watch as the ripple of black and exposed flesh threaded itself together one cell at a time, until it had turned to a soft, knitted pink before her eyes.

"Why isn't he attacking?" asked Hinata once her teammate had finished, her voice tilting on anxious. Sakura met her gaze, watching the cloaked man still among the rocks.

"I managed to land a hit earlier," muttered Sakura, cracking her knuckles. "He dodged the brunt of my chakra, but I broke his ribs before he was able to get my arm."

The cloaked man suddenly launched from the cliffs into the air toward them, not giving them a second longer to strategize, moving Hinata to fling a flurry of kunai at his approaching figure . At her side, Sakura's fingers raced through a series of symbols as her body suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke. The man's eyes widened as Hinata, leaped into the air to meet him, unconcerned at the disappearance of her teammate.

In an explosion of smoke, Sakura reappeared in place of a kunai that had missed at the man's flank, her fist charged as she swung it at his cheek. His own kunai whipped up just in time to parry, but he was unable to block Hinata's onslaught as her fists collided with his abdomen in a series of perfectly-placed palmed jabs.

Instead of meeting her with a face of fear, however, the man's expression melted into smugness as his body disappeared in another cloud, replacing in midair with the rutted bark of a stump that fell uselessly to the sand below. The kunoichis sprung easily to the ground, moving to defend back-to-back, eyes whirling as they sought their enemy once more.

"We were close," Hinata breathed.

"Maybe," replied Sakura after a beat as she spotted their enemy up the beach, joined now by a second figure. "I think they're toying with us."

The second figure wore a mask that covered the bottom half of his face from view, his glittering gold eyes the only discernible feature among his dark clothing. Although his body was turned toward his ally, his eyes never left the kunoichi, his glance angular and narrowed with a twisted malice. The two shinobi appeared to be talking, although their words were lost across the distance. The roar of battle down the beach had only loudened as a gale whipped across the sand, the sky beginning to darken overhead.

"Why choose now to appear?" wondered Sakura aloud, dropping into a crouch as she raised her fists defensively. "We would never have known his identity. He could have escaped. Or waited for a better opportunity to jump in."

As if in answer, a tower of water exploded out at sea. Although too far out for the Konoha teammates to determine its cause, the answer became clear as a violet vortex shot into the air in pursuit of a fiery blur of orange movement. The two chakras collided in the air, then shot back down to the surface and out of sight. The sound of an explosion followed shortly after, followed by a rush of wind that tore at the kunoichi's clothes.

"It must have something to do with them," Hinata whispered. Without a word, the two kunoichi charged forward, their fists bared. The men split off, the golden-eyed man spinning to the side to take on Hinata, the red-caped shinobi's face glowing as he shot off two bolts of red lightning at Sakura.

Before Hinata could reach her target, the golden eyed man's hands whipped through a series of signs and slammed into the sand. Without warning, the ground leapt up into life, rolling and tossing as if it were the ocean incarnate. Hinata launched backward, watching as the sand settled into humanoid figures, armed and ready with hardened sand weapons like soldiers.

The sand warriors charged at the Hyuuga, and she whirled and spun to attack and block their onslaught. When one fell from her blows, another would spring up in its place. Wind whipped sand into her eyes, but she continued to spin and move through them, always watchful of the golden-eyed shinobi watching from a safe distance. Her movements became furious as she fought for each painstaking step toward him.

Sakura, meanwhile, was locked in a taijutsu battle with the red-caped man. He was blindingly fast, darting back and then forward, in and out of her powerful attacks. She threw a punch at his cheek and he dodged left, so she dipped and dropped her hand to the ground as she threw a kick toward his exposed ribs. He flipped back, then rushed forward, forcing her to roll to the side and spring to her feet, rushing back as she blocked a series of his punches with chakra-infused forearms, sweating beading down her brow as she spun and launched her own offensive strike.

A yelp sprung to Sakura's ears after she nearly landed a blow on her attacker, and she shot a glance to the side to find Hinata surrounded and by sand soldiers down the beach. She sprinted toward her teammate, ignoring the shinobi who followed hotly on her heels, then flung her chakra-infused fist into the earth at the edge of the fray.

Hinata sprang from the earth just in time as the sand around her erupted in a great froth of sand and boulders. The dark-haired kunoichi landed easily at Sakura's side and dropped into a seamless crouch as the rosette's grip closed around her ankles. The air hissed with chakra as Sakura channeled all the chakra she could manage into her arms, wrenching Hinata's weight out from under her, whipping her body around in a circle and hurling it like a missile toward the golden-eyed man. He staggered back in surprise, Hinata's fists already flying toward his face, as her weight collided into his, slamming him into the ground. She rolled to the side as he heaved himself to his feet, blocking a series of palmed jabs from her as he moved back and away from her in defense.

Satisfied that her teammate had regained control of her duel, Sakura turned toward the red-cloaked man. Her heart skipped as she found him hurtling toward the waves and away from her in a dead sprint. Her emerald eyes stuttered from his retreating form—and the flashes of chakra out at sea that he aimed toward—to Hinata in worry.

As if in answer, the Hyuuga's pale eyes flickered back to meet hers. "Go!" Sakura saw her lips move.

Without question, the pinkette tore toward the waves and after the red-cloaked man's back. She saw another dance of purple and orange alight amongst the darkening clouds and felt concern bubbling in the pit of her belly. While the Kyuubi's chakra had tripled in size, Susanoo's remained small, its edges flickering dangerously.

She swallowed, her gaze tightening. Sasuke's chakra reserves had been sparse to begin with, and she wondered suddenly if she would make it in time.

* * *

Sasuke spun his foot back to avoid a blow to his abdomen, then launched up and twisted his body through the air, whipping his kusanagi with crackling speed toward Naruto's shoulder. The blonde slid into the water below his feet just in time, leaving Sasuke to leap backward in anticipation. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as his eyes darted across the water's surface for the next hit.

He swore under his breath, pushing exhaustion aside as violet chakra roared to life in front of him, just as the fiery, spectral hand of the Kyuubi shot out from the waves toward him. The giant fingers closed around his Susanoo, squeezing until Sasuke's chest heaved with effort, then picked him up and tossed him across the water. The violet shield flickered and died out as the Uchiha's body skidded across the water hundreds of yards away, coming to rest with blood pooling from his mouth.

Naruto shot out from beneath the waves, landing easily on his feet within range. He smirked as Sasuke picked himself up into a crouch. The Uchiha smeared the blood from his chin on the back of his hand and spit the remnants to the side, the tomoes of his crimson eye spinning dangerously.

The shell of his blonde friend cocked his head, aquamarine eyes narrowing into slits. He shouldered his way out of his orange jacket and tossed it to the side, the fabric soaking through stitch by stich, sinking slowly into the rolling tide. He cracked his back smugly, stretching his arms from side to side.

"You're never going to win if you aren't willing to kill me," drawled the enemy in Naruto's voice. He placed his hand on his hips as the bright yellow chakra of the Kyuubi began to fade from his fingertips, withdrawing until his skin returned to normal.

In a flash, the orange jacket appeared where Sasuke had once been, the thin blade of Sasuke's kusanagi slicing through Naruto's flesh, stopping where it protruded through Naruto's chest. Not through the heart, but through an artery large enough to seriously wound him. Blood seeped through his white undershirt, dripping down his front and back, with Sasuke standing just a breath behind him.

Naruto's head twisted slowly back. He smirked. "Just missed," he sneered in a whisper.

Sasuke sensed movement behind him and tried to wrench the blade from Naruto's back in order to defend himself. The blade wouldn't budge, and Sasuke swore as he dropped it entirely and spun to face another attacker. His eyes widened.

The red cloaked man, hand screeching with lightning, was rushing at him, a breath away. The attack was moving too swiftly and too closely to be avoided, screaming right at his chest with deadly intensity. Sasuke couldn't dodge, couldn't defend. Time slowed as he stood there, the breath hissing from his lungs. The attack rushed to hit him square through the chest. He was aware distantly of Naruto's body collapsing behind him, and of the flicker of movements in front of him.

Heat splattered across his face, his vision blurring with crimson as he staggered and fell back to the water's surface. He choked in a breath as his hand flew to his chest, feeling flesh and fabric intact beneath his touch. His eyes shot up, suddenly unable to breathe. His skin went cold.

Sakura stood over him, blocking the attacker from view.

She stood with her back to him, facing the red-cloaked shinobi with her arms crossed in front of her, rosette locks coiling past her shoulders, wild with wind and salt. The lavender crisscrosses of her Yin seal slowly receded from where they had risen to her skin in combat, fading until the paleness of her skin seemed to glow. Sasuke thought he heard her voice, but the words were lost in the ringing in his ears.

Sasuke lurched to his feet—to intervene, to protect—but froze with his hand outstretched. Something was wrong. The kunoichi had stood too still for too long, the attacker equally so. A tiny droplet plummeted from the hem of Sakura's shirt to the water below her. Sasuke's eyes tightened as he tracked the crimson bead mingling with deep blue. Another drip rippled to join it, then another. The pulse picked up in a rhythm until blood was streaming from her clothes to the ocean in sickening waves.

The wound—Sasuke could see it now. He felt a wave of nausea grip his stomach. The damage went right through her abdomen, and as he stumbled forward to hold her steady, he couldn't tell crimson flesh from crimson fabric. A horrible sucking noise ripped his attention past her as the attacker yanked his hand from her stomach, his cloak swirling around his boots.

Sakura wavered for a moment, then crumpled forward. The red-cloaked man stumbled back as he watched, his arm dripping with her blood, his mouth hanging open as he stared from his fingertips to the kunoichi, then finally to his unmarred target behind her.

A guttural noise ripped through the air as Sasuke ripped his blade from Naruto's collapsed form and sliced it through the air with a blinding rage. His enemy's eyes widened as he leaped back, but not quickly enough. The man blocked one swing from the Uchiha prodigy with a flimsy kunai, but was no match for the ensuing slaughter of blows. The red-cloaked man fell easily into the waves only a moment later, his jugular emptying into the tide as he sank.

Sasuke dropped to Sakura's side and towed her limp body from the water before she could sink, pressing his palm to the wound at her stomach. Blood poured from her in violent bursts, and he was covered in it before he knew what to do. Her eyes were open, glazed, staring without sight toward the sky above him. Her skin so pale it was almost translucent. Her lips twitched as if to speak, but no sound emitted. He pressed harder into the wound.

" _Sakura_!" he shouted her name into her face, as if it were all a dream they would soon wake up from, if only he were loud enough. His heart beat hammered in his ears until it was all he could hear. He didn't know anything about medical ninjutsu—he possessed only the power to kill, to destroy. He didn't know how to stop the death that was pulsing past his fingers.

His sharingan swirled as he drew from the memory of her healing him from only a few days prior. He drank in the memory of how different the chakra signature had felt, how unlike his own. He concentrated on that difference, willing what little energy he still possessed into his hand, until his hand flickered weakly with green. Sweat dripped down his face. He could feel her pulse weakening with each beat until it was a whisper he could just barely sense.

" _Sakura!_ " he screamed again, the green from his hands intensifying, still not strong enough to mend the hole that she had been so willing to take in his place.

Sasuke felt her heart stop. Felt it in the last, flickering pulse of blood from her wound. He was screaming with effort, eyes squeezing shut. He needed a hospital, he needed medics, he needed to get her real help. She was dying. She was dying in his hands.

He was shaking violently, vision blurring with exhaustion. He didn't have enough chakra, or enough control, to maintain the healing that _wasn't even working._ He screamed for help across the water, the sound of his voice going unheard across the space. Naruto's body just behind him, drifting among the waves.

" _You—can't—die!"_ he bellowed, wrapping his arm around her and holding her limp body against his. He pressed his face into her neck, aware of the warmth fading fast, her scent tainted with metallic as his hand continued to pulse with his feeble healing chakra.

 _Take us home, take us home, take us home_. His eyes screwed shut as he focused all of his energy on that one thought. Chakra pulsed suddenly from his rinnegan, and a blinding white light engulfed them. He squeezed her against his chest.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, fluorescent lights met his stare. Everything was spinning, his mind flickered in and out of consciousness. Her body was still against his chest, but he was lying flat on his back on a cold floor. He was aware of voices yelling around him, frantic movement that he wasn't able to track as his eyes rolled back into his skull.

He forced them open to see people in scrubs and masks crowding around them. The weight of Sakura was lifted from his chest, and he opened his mouth to protest but succeeded only in a hoarse groan.

By some strange burst of energy, he staggered to his feet. He was aware distantly of hands reaching out to help him, of voices shouting in his ear to sit down, of blood seeping from his clothes. Was it his? He couldn't be sure. He saw a flash of pink in the darkness, being wheeled down the hallway, surrounded by medics, crimson against crisp white sheets. He took a step forward, the whole world lurching suddenly, and slammed his shoulder into the nearest wall. He passed out before he hit the ground, her name on his lips.

 _Sakura._

* * *

 **A/N**

I'm the worst... So sorry for the long wait. I'm terrible and really don't have a reasonable excuse for the delay other than that life seriously got in the way. Eek! Thank you for your patience. :3

I have a lot of time off coming up soon (FINALLY) so I'm hoping to have a lot more time to write and update regularly. I can't wait! Thank you thank you for your love and all of the thoughtful reviews you've left me, and I can't wait to hear what you think!

xx

Indigo


	13. Dappled

**Chapter 13 – Dappled**

* * *

A white light erupted from out at sea. It split toward the sky in a wavering tower of energy, followed quickly by the sound of an explosion and a rush of wind that tossed sand and surf at the shinobi scattered across the beach. Hinata threw her arms over her head as pebbles flung into her back, then quickly blinked back the grit to reassess. She didn't have time to think about Team 7 right now.

On the beach, the Leaf had the upper hand. Although they had only six shinobi to their ranks against the enemy's thirty-six, their skill and willpower far outweighed those of the puppet soldiers. The enemies fell one by one, leaving the Leaf to close in on the golden-eyed ringleader backing away down the beach. When the opportunity presented itself, Suigetsu, Juugo and Hinata surrounded him against the cliffs.

"Watch yourself, pretty boy," spat Suigetsu as he slammed his blade into the sand in front of the nin. "Surrender now, or Juugo here will go berserk on your ass. And there's nothing to stop him once that happens."

The white-haired nin revealed a toothy grin as he licked his lips, glaring hungrily at the golden-eyed man. Juugo's eyes glinted yellow as he cocked his head in a strangely animal movement, his shoulders hunching over as if he meant to land on all fours. His jaw fell open suddenly, the darkened skin of the curse mark beginning to claw its way along his collarbone.

A guttural snarl ripped from Juugo's throat as spikes erupted from his back. The golden man leaped to the side, only to find walls of water shooting up from the sand and confining him right where he stood. When he feigned the other direction, Hinata stood waiting, her Gentle Fist palms whirling too fast to keep track.

The golden-eyed man fell, the three shinobi standing over him in triumph.

As Juugo moved to bind the man, sound down the beach alerted them to the rest of their teammates. Hinata's eyes widened in surprise.

For when the man had fallen, so had the rest of the puppet soldiers. His defeat had seemingly released them from their genjutsu holds. One by one they fell to the sand, some caught by the Konoha nin, the rest to crumple to the earth.

"That wasn't so bad!" Hinata heard Ino exclaim down the beach. Hinata didn't wait before she spun on her heel and sprinted out toward the waves. The battle between teammates had gone quiet, and the silence terrified her.

After sprinting across the waves, Hinata found Naruto drifting alone on his back, staring listlessly at the sky, his cerulean eyes half-lidded. She slid in next to him, tucking one hand beneath his shoulders, the other around the small of his back and lifting him from the water. He was covered in a watery mix of blood, but steam rose from his wound and his body, indicating the quick healing ability he was known for.

"Hinata," the blonde hummed as he rolled his chin over to get a good look at her. His fingers brushed her cheek before falling limply. He pushed himself into a seated position, pressing his palm to his forehead.

"Where… are Sasuke and Sakura?" Hinata murmured. She could not feel their chakras, even as she searched with her own. Naruto's eyes darted up to meet hers.

"I… I don't know," he whispered. He peered past her, concern glinting in his bright blue hues. Hinata rose uncertainly to her feet, extending a hand to help him to his feet. Together the two shinobi threaded their way back to shore, watching the waves for any sign of their friends.

* * *

Kakashi stood very still at the foot of the bed, hands in his pockets, eyes watching the flush of fever burn across his former student's cheeks. Every so often, the dark-haired youth's body would twitch, his expression twisting in discomfort as his fingers flexed and snagged at the sheets.

The silver-haired shinobi approached his bedside with quiet steps, placing a tentative hand on the boy's shoulder. At once, Sasuke's restlessness quieted. His next breath came more deeply, his chest sinking back into the mattress. Relief swam over Kakashi as he pulled away.

As grown up as Team 7 had become, seeing his students like this reminded Kakashi of their startling youth. Sasuke, despite all of his years of darkness and distance, was only twenty-one years old, and Kakashi could see it in the round of his high cheekbones and in the leanness of his still-growing frame. He forgot about that fact, sometimes. Yet, as Kakashi watched over the slumbering kid, he couldn't help but to be drawn to it. To want to protect it.

Sasuke was too young not to have family to watch over him. Yet, he was struggling toward consciousness in a hospital bed, completely alone, just as Kakashi had at his age. It was something that the copy-cat nin would never get usecd to.

"You did good, kid," the man murmured, clapping the Uchiha on the shoulder before turning toward the door. "You did good."

The hokage made his way through the hospital with heavy steps. Sasuke and Sakura's arrival had come completely by surprise. Despite the few days that had passed since their explosive appearance in the emergency room—with Sakura bleeding out across the tiles and Sasuke lapsing into cardiac arrest due to chakra over-expenditure—Kakashi hadn't been able to wrap his head around it. No matter how many times his former students managed to land themselves in the hospital, he never got used to it. Never got used to the sight of their blood, or the way their bodies would wilt against the sheets as they struggled toward life. He cared about them as if they were his own, although he would never dream of telling them that. Especially Naruto.

As Kakashi entered the ICU, he peered through the little glass window in the door and into Sakura's room. A team of six medics crowded around her cloaked body, shouting orders back and forth that he couldn't hear. Their movements blocked her wounds from view as Tsunade led the charge, their hands aglow with chakra and their eyes alight with focus.

When he noticed the blood pooled beneath the table, Kakashi quickly withdrew and tapped away down the hallway. As he eyed a clock mounted against one hallway wall, he began to move more swiftly toward the exit. A certain team of Konoha shinobi would be arriving soon, as he wanted to head them off at the gate before Naruto made a scene.

* * *

It was several days before anyone was allowed visitation. Naruto was required to go through a number of psych exams to be deemed clear of any lasting effects of the genjutsu, and the rest of the team was separated, treated and interviewed for debriefing. The post-op wheels began to turn from there, with additional teams formed and sent off to make sure that the enemies had been truly dealt with, while the golden-eyed captive was thrown in the Konoha prison to await trial.

Once he was clear, Naruto wasted no time, barging into the hospital with unfettered optimism. When he was turned away from Sakura's, he bounced up a few flights to Sasuke's.

There, Naruto wavered against the back wall of the hospital room, eyes on the floor, biting his lip with an uncharacteristic uncertainty. His blue depths were flecked with a gray storminess, his jaw set in a firm line as he ground his teeth together, hands balling in and out of fists. Cautiously, he allowed his gaze to drift up toward his dark-haired teammate, framed against the white hospital bed before him. A machine at his side beeped along with his heart rate, slow and rhythmic, yet jarring against the room's sterile silence.

He'd thought wrongly that Sasuke would be up and alert. Seeing him down for the count brought a strange sense of powerlessness that had him shifting uncomfortable in place.

 _Stupid Uchiha brat_ , came Kurama's dark drawl in Naruto's head as he felt the presence of the Kyuubi peering out of his eyes with him. _Serves him right_.

The jinchuriki shook his head stiffly. _Kurama, it wasn't his fault…_ Naruto thought at him, tugging on his ear absently. _He was as much under the genjutsu as we were. Plus, we've gotten a little rusty…_

 _Pah! Who's fault is that?_ the nine-tails retorted. _I've been itching for a real fight._

Naruto paused, shrugging his shoulders back as he felt the little burst of chakra enter his veins from the Kurama's presence. _Just don't pick one with Sasuke, okay?_

The creature sighed, and Naruto heard the sound of him picking his fangs with a claw. _I make no promises. Once an Uchiha, always an Uchiha._

 _Save it, Kurama…_

"Naruto-kun," murmured a voice from the door. Naruto snapped to attention, feeling Kurama's chakra settle into the background. He turned, eyes meeting his wife's, who he hadn't even heard coming through the door.

"Are you alright?" Hinata asked, joining his side and touching his shoulder gently. He avoided eye contact, eyes on the floor, but he looped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her in. He shook his head.

"I just keep thinking… I'm such an idiot," Naruto muttered, rubbing his forehead with his palm. "I didn't think that anything like this could happen. That Sasuke could get taken out in the first place, or that Sasuke's abilities over Kurama would be exposed as the achilles heel that it is… It seems obvious now, but I didn't even register it as a possibility before."

He let go of the dark-haired kunoichi and approached the window, his arms folded over his chest.

"It's not your fault, Naruto-kun," she murmured, stepping up beside him and threading her fingers through his. "No one saw it coming. And those men—they're gone. It's over."

Naruto shrugged the comment off, eyes darting back to Sasuke, lying motionless behind them.

"I can't believe… they're both like this," he muttered, approaching the bed with heavy footsteps. Hinata touched his shoulder softly. "The doctors say he'll be fine, but Sakura—"

"They'll be alright, Naruto-kun," Hinata urged quickly, her hand falling the small of his back. "We just need to give them time. We'll come back first thing in the morning, okay?"

The blonde shook his head for a minute as if to clear it, and looked up at her with the most tentative of smiles. He nodded slowly, and she tugged him toward the door.

* * *

Dappled sunlight filtered gold across his cheeks as he slowly opened his eyes. He raised his chin, peering through the leaves in the canopy overhead as the wind tugged as his hair. He lay flat on his back, his arms and legs spread wide around him. The air smelled of wood smoke and a hint of apple, the evening sky clear and blue.

"Sasuke!"

He rolled his head toward his name, eyes taking in the familiar lake glistening wide before him. At the end of the pier, a perched figure waving emphatically. Sasuke pulled himself into a seat then hopped to his feet. His feet moved automatically, picking up into a jog as he hurtled down the little hill toward the lake's bank, nearly tripping over his sandals before he skidded to a stop at the edge of the dock.

Itachi sat waiting, a grin widening across his cheeks as he swiped his ponytail over his shoulder and motioned him closer. He was young, his cheeks full and rosy, eyes bright with evening glow. His sandals dangled over the edge of the water, swinging back and forth as Sasuke approached. The younger brother plopped down beside him, aware of his own small hands as he brought them before his eyes. They were both children.

Catching his look of surprise, Itachi reached over and ruffled his hair.

"You don't often visit me, Sasuke-kun," he said softly. When Sasuke looked up, it was the adult Itachi of his memories that matched his gaze. Tall and lean, harsh lines biting into his pale face. His eyes were the only things unchanged—dark, bright and soft with an uncertain affection. Their corners wrinkled when he met Sasuke's gaze.

When Sasuke glanced away to the water, he saw in his reflection that he, too, was as he last saw. His hair thick and unruly, skin darkened from long travel days in the sun. Older, but not quite old.

"You aren't real," Sasuke responded levelly, tapping his fingers along the edge of the pier beneath him. His eyes flickered back to his brother's, whose gaze had not lifted. A small hum passed Itachi's lips as he shifted his cloak more firmly over his shoulders and regarded the water with a curl to his lips.

"I wouldn't be so sure," said Itachi finally. Sasuke dropped his gaze and found his older brother fiddling with a stone between his fingers. Before he could ask, his brother cocked his arm back and released, the stone shooting out across the water in arcs. Each time it hit the water, the glass erupted in ripples that cascaded against each other in chaos.

"You're a memory, brother," Sasuke growled, dropping his gaze to his feet. "You died."

Itachi cocked his head at this, blinking at his younger brother's somber expression, and promptly bumped against his shoulder.

"For a shinobi who jumps dimensions, you have a narrow constitution of reality," breathed Itachi, his tone light as he hopped to his feet and stepped out onto the water. Sasuke opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he noticed his brother's gaze flicker over his shoulder, expression paling. Sasuke whipped around.

A storm shrieked thunder over Konoha at their backs, rumbling rain and sleet toward them in sheets. The darkness shrouded the lake in an instant as it approached, the wind suddenly picking up to a howl.

"What is this?" growled Sasuke over the torrents, rising to his feet as he ground his heels into the plywood.

"A storm," replied Itachi matter-of-factly. When Sasuke turned to shoot him a look, however, his brother was no longer standing at the water. He whipped around, eyes scanning back and forth as the rain began to stain his shirt with wetness, but his presence had vanished.

A gust knocked him back a step, toward the edge of the pier, and he heard a sound from the water below. Sasuke dropped to his knees, the water below suddenly thrashing as a hand reached up frantically from the depths. He took hold of it, yanking the hand and its owner from the depths as the sky continued to darken.

"Sasuke."

The voice hoarse and lifeless, but not Itachi's.

"Help."

Green eyes, blinking up at him as their brightness faded.

"..ke…kun."

The mane of strawberry coils thumping to the side as blood pulsed from her stomach. Blood soaked his clothing as he staggered away, the rain drenching his clothes crimson, the sloshing of the lake suddenly red as blood as it pounded against the pier. Everything blurred and pitched and swam as the heel of his sandal hit something and he pitched backward into the grass. The wind in his ears screaming until it was all he could hear, and he could not separate it from his own screaming that tore soundlessly from his open jaw. He pressed his hand over his ear and buried the other into the earth, squeezing his eyes shut as the noise threatened to tear him open.

All he could hear was her voice, repeating his name, as blood dripped from his fingers.

* * *

Sasuke awoke gasping for air. His chest heaved, drenched in sweat as he blinked into the light and choked in breathes. His eyes flickered across his surroundings, picking it apart as if unsure of its reality, his fingers refusing to unknot themselves from where they so tightly gripped the sheets.

The room blurred into focus. Morning light bled through the window behind him, dappling through the curtains onto the linoleum floor. He stared at the sun that splayed onto the bedsheets, the movement kindling a faint recognition that he pushed aside as he propped himself onto his elbow.

A Konoha hospital room greeted him. On one side of the bed, an IV stand dripped fluids into the crook of his arm, while a monitor bleeted along with his pulse. On the other, an uncertain collection of flowers perched in a vase. What petals remained drooped with exhaustion, the rest gathering gray on the bedside table.

Sasuke lowered himself into the pillows again, gaze roaming to the ceiling as he took note of the heaviness seeped into his limbs. His ears still rang from the dream, his skin beginning to prickle with cold as the sweat dried against his nape. He snapped his eyes shut and tasted iron on his tongue. His stomach churned.

 _How did I get there?_

Sasuke sifted past the nightmares, pulling at memories that seeped through his fingers like sand. He remembered clashing with Naruto among the waves. How he'd let the euphoria of battle consume him, his abilities seeping onto the battlefield unbridled. Naruto was the only one who could take it, the only one who could match him, and thus the only one who could give him the satisfaction of a true test of power. A pang of guilt hit him at the thought.

Why did he still relish in attacking his friend?

He heard the whisperings of civilians and shinobi alike, across the Fire Country and beyond. _He's a monster. The evil Uchiha. Murders. Killers. Defectors. Better off dead. Disgusting. Kill them all. Dangerous. Despicable. They're all monsters. Uchiha Sasuke is a monster._

A monster who had somehow found enjoyment in battling his friend, the one shinobi who'd cared enough and strived hard enough to pull him from the darkness so many years previous. A monster who….

A flash of pink and crimson swam through his memories. Sasuke snapped his eyes open, blinking up at the fluorescent light above him as his heart suddenly pounded against his ribcage. Bile rose in his throat, threatening to choke him.

A monster who hadn't been able to save her. A monster who'd killed her.

He heard something rolling down the hall outside and flickered his eyes toward the door to watch as it gradually slid open, revealing the backside of a short male nurse pulling a hospital cart stacked with trays. The man seemed to be struggling somewhat to get the cart around the sharp edge of the doorway, and he yelped as he succeeded in knocking a folder and all of its contents onto the linoleum tiles.

As he scrambled to gather them into his arms, another set of footsteps approached.

"Making another mess, I see," rumbled a familiar voice. Sasuke's eyes lifted in surprise at the corresponding masked face, with its sweep of thick hair and disinterested one-eyed glance, as Kakashi stepped nimbly over the disarray of papers, hands in his pockets.

Without raising his eye, the man continued: "And welcome back, Sasuke."

He felt a familiar prickle at the back of his neck as his teacher turned toward him and finally lifted his stare. Sasuke matched his gaze without response, instead flicking a glance at the attendant, who had nearly fallen over in his surprise upon seeing his patient very conscious and very unapproachable.

"Leave us for a moment, please," Kakashi requested. The nurse bobbed his head and scrambled for the door.

Satisfied, the gray-haired hokage turned back to the bed and made himself comfortable, sitting unceremoniously at the foot of the bed, one sandal propped against the railing, the other swinging freely. He gazed around the room with nonchalant lightness, as if taking all of it in for the first time. The book cases along one wall, the open window, the bathroom door hanging slightly ajar—all bathed in a contrasting morning glow.

Sasuke narrowed his stare, studying Kakashi's distant expression. There were more wrinkles etching the lines of his former teacher's face than he remembered, and his hair had thinned and whitened in snowy patches. Aware of his stare, Kakashi cast him a wary glance from the corner of his eye and reached slowly into the pouch at his belt. Sasuke's felt his breath catch.

An orange book met the light. Kakashi pulled it before his nose, eyes alighting greedily on the page. Sasuke's blink of surprise turned quickly into a glare.

"Kakashi," growled the Uchiha, his hand balling into a fist. His voice came out hoarse and more quiet than intended, and he rumbled a cough to clear his throat.

"Hmm?" the man responded without looking up, turning the page quietly. Sasuke's obsidian hues glinted coldly.

"What happened?" he asked sharply. Kakashi didn't respond, instead flitting a gaze at his student over the top of his book with a tired shrug. He ran a hand through his silver hair.

"Kakashi," Sasuke warned, pushing himself into a seated position. His head swam as he did so, but he gritted his teeth through it and moved to swing his legs out over the edge of the bed to stand up. Kakashi shook his head and held out his arm out to stop him, finally replacing his book in its pouch.

"Calm down, Sasuke," he said, his voice gentle. His student scowled.

"What the _hell_ happened?" His voice started at a shout, but drifted mid-sentence. His memory was blurry, filled with holes, like his vision now as a heaviness settled over his eyes. There had so much blood. Everything dyed red. Her chest still against his. He felt a heaviness there, as if she'd never been lifted away. He remembered flashes of the emergency room, of someone hauling him off the ground. Lights retreating, then nothing. "Where is Sakura?"

"Take it easy, Sasuke," breathed Kakashi. The silver-haired hokage reached over to the bedside table and passed over a glass of water as the Uchiha leaned back against headboard. He took the glass without a word, drained the contents and replaced it on the table with a shaky hand. He then fixed his stare on eyes on his former teacher, obsidians half-lidded and gray with exhaustion.

"She's alive," said Kakashi slowly, once Sasuke seemed to have settled from his outburst. He chose each word delicately and scratched his arm with one hand as he spoke, eyes roaming the about room again. "But barely. She's still in the ICU. The medics aren't... optimistic."

Sasuke's ears began to ring. He didn't respond, his gaze falling to the sheets, eyes wide.

"Tsunade has done what she can. Even went as far as to rebuild organs from the First's cells," explained Kakashi, his voice soft and cautious. His eyes flickered up to Sasuke's face occasionally, checking for reactions. The raven-haired shinobi remained still, eyes now pinned to the linoleum floor on the opposite side of the bed. His fingers traced ambient circles on the sheets. Kakashi continued:

"She wouldn't have made it this far without you, Sasuke. You saved her."

The Uchiha's eyes snapped up suddenly, bewilderment flickering across his face before he carefully veiled it up again. His dark eyes glinted steely, his thin lips curving into a frown as his jaw ground together.

"If you hadn't—" Kakashi started.

"Shut up, Kakashi," Sasuke snarled.

The dark-haired youth threw back the sheets and hopped to his feet. He wavered for a moment, his eyes narrowing as he rocked onto his heels to regain balance, the room lurching out of focus around him.

"Where is she?" Sasuke demanded once he'd composed himself. The hoarseness of his voice muted the intensity with which he'd meant it. Kakashi put up his hand slowly.

"Sasuke… Do you realize what you did out there?" asked the silver-haired man, his voice quiet and slow as he watched his former student cross the room toward the door. His time in the hospital had left the young Uchiha's body more lean than usual. His hospital-issue t-shirt hung askew across his shoulders, exposing sinewy muscles and a skin stretched taught across a bony collarbone. Even his cheeks appeared sunken, gray. His hair had grown long and unkept, like a raven mane that clung to his neck in dark disarray.

Sasuke's gaze flickered up to meet Kakashi's as he paused by the door. His jaw tightened, but he didn't answer.

"You teleported across a _country_ ," Kakashi said slowly as he stood and took a step toward the youth. He shoved his hands in his pockets. "You phased into the emergency room from the middle of the ocean. That kind of chakra expenditure, it could have killed you. It _should_ have killed you. Nothing like that has been done before."

Sasuke stared at his teacher for a moment, then turned away to face the window. His muscles creaked with the movement as he stepped into the dappled sunlight filtering in through the curtains. He closed his eyes, the light soft and warm on his face. He wavered, the exhaustion that had been circling hanging heavily upon his shoulders now, his knees threatening to buckle.

"How long has it been, Kakashi?" he asked slowly, rolling each syllable over his tongue.

"A week."

"And… the rest?"

"The whole team is safe," answered Kakashi, his voice strangely gentle. "Naruto is anxious for an update and in need of a shower, but completely fine otherwise."

Sasuke twitched at the sign of movement at his side and snapped his eyes around to find Kakashi joining him at the window. They stood silently beside each other for a few minutes, the wind rushing through the trees outside serving as the only sound between them.

The silvery man suddenly pressed something into Sasuke's palm, and he glanced down to find an orange bottle packed with pills. When he raised a questioning glance, Kakashi shrugged.

"I'm not so foolish as to think the medics will be able to keep you here much longer," the Hokage breathed, smiling into the light as he watched civilians weave through the sprawling hospital gardens below. The corners of his eye crinkled. "Just take these once a day until you've recovered fully. It should help restore your chakra reserves."

Sasuke pocketed the vial without a word. He felt Kakashi retreat toward the door, and he glanced over his shoulder to watch as his former teacher paused in the doorframe.

"She's downstairs, room 106. They won't let anyone in, but you may catch a glimpse," offered the silver-haired Hokage. "Thanks for bringing her home, Sasuke." In a swish of his cloaks, he'd disappeared down the hall.

After a few minutes had passed, Sasuke turned away from the window and padded toward the door, his footsteps silent and swift.

The hallways and stairwells that Sasuke passed through were empty, devoid even of sound aside from the eerie hum of lights overhead. The air was icy cold and stagnant, smelling strongly of antiseptic and stale plastic. Sasuke stared at his feet and the oversized, hospital-issue socks that covered them, feeling a shiver trickle down his spine.

As he passed through a quarantined entryway, the ICU hallway scrambled to life before them. Nurses hurrying between rooms, clipboards in hands. Two doctors huddled over a computer, their voices frantic and hushed. A surgeon exiting one of the ORs in scrubs, blood speckling his collar as he strode down the hall. Sasuke tensed as he passed him. Nurses turned glances at him, eyeing him and whispering before flitting back to their stations.

He turned down an emptier hallway, eyes widening as the gleaming label for room 106 stared him back.

* * *

 **A/N**

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you for the love and the reads, and I hope you like this latest installment!

xo

Indigo


	14. Fragile

**Chapter 14 - Fragile**

* * *

Sakura lay perfectly still in the hospital bed, her rose locks wild and unruly against the pillows beneath her. Her pale skin seemed almost translucent, with deep violet half-moons blooming beneath closed eyes and the scarlet blush of fever burning across her cheekbones. An oxygen mask obscured the rest her face from view, pumping her chest up and down along with the rattled rhythm of the machine at her bedside. Her hands lay open against her side, one crisscrossed with bandages and the other attached to an IV stand. Someone had gone through the trouble of tucking the rest of her little body into the covers, pulling the cheap blankets up to her collarbone as if it might offer her some comfort.

As Sasuke approached the bed, his chest began to pound. He stopped beside her, close enough to reach out and touch her, his gaze flickering around her room in nervous twitches. She was so small. Stripped of her liveliness, of her raw power and animated demeanor, she seemed to shrink against the stark whiteness of the bed. The delicateness of her fingers, the point of her noise and the hallowed angles of her jawline—had these traits always existed? Had her skin been so bright and pink before, in contrast to the gray pulled taught across this skeletal frame?

Had she always been so thin, so fragile?

Sasuke distantly registered movement behind but, his shoulders tensing in response before he willed them back down. He could feel Kakashi's chakra approaching next to him, along with another signature lingering at the door. His eyes dropped to the floor, and to the hospital-issue socks that buried his narrow feet. Something ached deep in his chest, like a heavy burn grinding its way deep below his sternum. He gritted his teeth, fingers curling into a fist in the pocket of his sweatpants. He did not want to acknowledge the other people in the room.

When he flickered a glance back to Sakura's face, his throat tightened, his stomach churning. He couldn't understand the sight of her, couldn't register it. He didn't recognize this body in front of him. Didn't want to. This was his fault. This would never have happened if he hadn't been so careless. Hadn't dragged her into his mess.

"Kakashi," snapped a voice suddenly. "Why did you bring this brat in here?"

Sasuke snapped up to meet the amber glare of Tsunade, glowering at him from the opposite side of the hospital bed. The blonde medic stood with her hands braced against her hips, fury glinting in the corners of her eyes. Sasuke shifted his weight onto his heels and allowed his gaze to drift back to Sakura. He didn't have the energy nor desire to get into it with this woman, but he could feel the twist of frustration burning its way up into his chest.

Kakashi stepped forward to Sasuke's side, clapping him on the shoulder and squeezing his collarbone with a firm, warning. "Good to see you as always, Tsunade," the silver-haired nin hummed, the lightness in his voice not quite making it into his eye, which hang heavy as they surveyed his former student doubtfully.

Tsunade pursed her lips, eyes darting back to her own student in the hospital bed as she tapped her foot against the tile. Her arms folded across her chest.

"Don't test me, Kakashi," she shot back. "I told you, very specifically, no visitors." She turned toward the door and brushed by them with a flutter of green kimono. She paused by the door, her pigtails twirling as she cast a disapproving glance over her shoulders. "You're lucky I'm on my way out."

"Ah. Allow me to join you," Kakashi responded. Tsunade nodded her head to the side, holding the door as Kakashi tapped his way past. She followed him out, the door swinging shut behind her.

Sasuke waited in place for a moment, wavering onto the arches of his feet before approaching the bed. His footsteps echoed amongst the chorus of beeps. He stopped at her side, covering above her, staring into the hollowness of her face. His gaze traced her porcelain edges. As if enough repetitions on any one of her features might save them. Save her.

Although her skin had been cleaned smooth, Sasuke found blood still stained her hair. Someone had tried to blotch it out, but there were streaks of crimson left streaking just past her hairline. He reached out and fumbled for her hand, finding it cold. A feeble pulse moved against his fingertips at her wrist, and he squeezed her fingers as if to warm them.

After a time, Sasuke slumped into a chair that waited at her bedside, dragging his fingers through his hair before taking up her fingers in his again. He continued to watch her breathe, tallying them along with the beeping of her heart-rate monitor at his back.

 _… One … Two … Three …_

He rested his chin on the blankets by her side, eyes moving to her pale fingers. He grasped them tightly in his and closed his eyes.

 _… Four … Five … Six …_

Sleep intercepted him before he could move to stop it.

* * *

When Sasuke stirred, his eyes opened to find the bed empty before him. The sheets were neat and pressed, the machines at his side silent. He straightened up, his back tightened from sleeping in a chair, and whipped around to find himself alone. He rose to his feet too quickly, putting out a hand to steady himself as his head swam.

How long at it been? Where had she gone? How did he sleep through it?

He slid across the room and poked his head out the door, finding the ICU hallway equally calm. When he closed his eyes, he felt no familiar chakra signatures nearby. He stepped into the hall and padded toward the exit, peering through the double doors before slipping through them. All the while, he darted glances into the rooms he passed, searching for signs of a pink-haired kunoichi.

The main hospital lobby greeted him beyond the exit, warm and well lit, despite the darkness that had fallen beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows. Sasuke's gaze swiveled around the space uncertainly, eyeing the waiting room chairs and the nurse at the front desk who smiled at him, until he felt the weight of someone's stare. He cocked his head to the side to find a familiar whiskered blonde gaping at him from the corner of the room.

"Sasuke?" Naruto called as he jumped to his feet and bounded across the room. Sasuke's chakra started as he took a step back—a slight and instinctual stutter of movement—his eyes narrowing coldly as he regarded his friend with careful assessment. Naruto slowed, stopping a beat away from him, and put his hands up. His expression melted into a sheepish grin.

"I'm me, it's me," Naruto assured, closing the space between them before Sasuke could squirm away, wrapping his arms around his friend's shoulders. Sasuke tensed at the contact, but didn't pull away from the embrace until Naruto withdrew himself.

"Glad you're alright, teme," said the blonde with a grin. "I went up to see you earlier, but the nurses were freaking that you'd run off."

Sasuke shrugged, his eyes flickering around the room uncomfortably, searching for faces he recognized among the patients and families scattered around the chairs. The blonde's expression fell.

"Sakura is in surgery," he answered quietly. Sasuke felt a strange heaviness settle into his shoulders. He exhaled sharply and moved his hand into his pocket. Naruto grasped his shoulder suddenly, and he lurched back, pulling free from his hold with a scowl.

"She'll be okay, Sasuke…" Naruto offered. "We just gotta wait. Tsunade said it'll be a while…. You should go home. Take a shower, get some clothes. You look like shit."

Sasuke shook his head stiffly, but flickered a glance down at himself, a deep frown forming across his pale features. The hospital-issue gray sweatpants that he'd woken up in hung low on his hips, too big for his narrow build, and his t-shirt was wrinkled and speckled with blood on one sleeve.

"It's mostly the hair," said Naruto as he watched Sasuke examine himself, jamming a finger toward his own blonde spikes as if his words needed clarification. The Uchiha resisted the urge to roll his eyes and shouldered his way past the blonde without responding, heading toward the door as he dragged his fingers through his unruly raven tresses. He heard Naruto's footsteps behind him and scowled.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Shoes?" called Naruto as he skipped a few steps to catch up.

"Shut up, idiot," hissed Sasuke. At the moment, crossing Konoha in a pair of hospital socks was the last thing he cared about. It was early evening, the crispness of the autumn air tugging goose bumps from his flesh, but the ground was dry.

"Sasuke," said Naruto after a while of walking. Sasuke slanted a glance in his direction, finding the blonde with his face turned toward the sky. His eyes were a deepset, stormy blue.

"What?" he asked.

"She'll get through this," Naruto answered.

The raven-haired shinobi tilted his head toward his old teammate, eyes clouding before dropping to the ground in front of his feet.

"Yeah. " Sasuke muttered.

"Are you hungry?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the question, finding that Naruto had stopped in his tracks just outside the entrance to a ramen shop. He shook his head, then turned back toward the road. The road to the Uchiha complex was just around the corner.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto," he said, his voice quiet as he moved to continue the rest of the way home on his own.

* * *

The paper door slid open before him, revealing the darkness of the home within. He felt around the wall to his right for the switch, and immediately the room was bathed in a milky light. He stepped into it, removing his socks and pulling the door closed behind him. At once, exhaustion closed in around him like a cloak. He made his way across the room as if he were treading water, his footsteps slow and heavy as he crossed the squeaking floorboards.

The house was just as he'd left it, spare the thick layer of dust laid across the furniture. As he passed the kitchen, the green light of the microwave told him it was only 5:36pm. He made his way to the bathroom and closed the door behind him. He stood very still for a moment, letting his breathing slow before spinning the shower faucet. As he waited for the water to warm, he tossed the socks into the waste bin, then began to strip the hospital garb from his body, disposing of them in the laundry basket.

When he stepped into the shower, the water scalded. He didn't move, allowing it to cascade around him until his skin tingled red. His chin tipped toward his chest, eyes falling to his feet as he leaned his forehead into the tiled wall. He watched as dirt and grime swirled around the drain, disappearing speck by speck. He dipped his head further so that the water streamed through his inky hair, running his fingers through it. The water at his feet turned suddenly crimson as blood washed through the strands. He staggered back, pulling his hand from his hair to find it red, too.

Bile rose in his throat as he pitched over and emptied the contents of his stomach into the drain. He coughed, leaning his shoulder heavily into the glass wall beside him as he waited for his breathing to settle. His stomach twisted dangerously, but he forced himself up and finished washing his hair. He closed his eyes as he ran soap over his skin, unwilling to see the blood. _Her_ blood.

When Sasuke was done, he stepped before the mirror, eyes meeting his own as he stuck a toothbrush in his mouth. The man who glared back at him sagged with exhaustion, eyes bloodshot and irises grayed. He tore his eyes away, turning finally toward his bedroom as steam billowed from the bathroom into the hallway. He slammed his door shut behind him and threw open the windows to let the crisp night air replace the dust. He breathed it in deeply as he slid into his sheets and twisted onto his back. As he exhaled a long breath, he became aware of a deep ache between his shoulder blades as his spine settled into the mattress, and of an even deeper migraine coiling in his temples. He pressed a thumb between his brows and tried to focus on his breathing. His eyes fluttered shut.

The moment the darkness surrounded him, memories swam up to meet him. First, it was just a few sounds. Of droplets hitting water. The splash of feet against the surface. Then, the horrible screeching of birds. Of flesh being ripped open, the sucking of blood and of flesh. He couldn't move, couldn't see. He could only listen as the scene played in repeat. His ears began to ring, shriller and shriller until it was a scream.

Sasuke's eyes snapped open in the dark. His chest thundered against the sheets as he choked in a breath. Sweated dotted his forehead, and he wiped it back with a swipe of his palm.

He rolled onto his side, feeling around in the dark for the lamp stationed there. He switched it on and pulled open the drawer, fiddling around in its contents until his fingers closed around a little bottle.

 _Tenazepam_ read the label. _Take one as needed. If insomnia symptoms persist after 7-10 nights, contact your medical provider._

Sasuke cracked the lid—the first time he'd done so for the prescription forced upon him by a medic nearly two years prior—and popped three.

* * *

The next morning, he went straight back to the hospital. Sakura had been discharged from surgery, and he found her moved to the recovery wing on an upper floor, looking more thin and frail than he'd last seen her. When the day saw no further changes, he returned the next morning. And the morning after that. A week passed, and then another.

Although for the first few days, he'd tried to fill the afternoon hours with getting into a regular routine—training, eating, organizing, training again—he did so distractedly. Halfheartedly. The tenacity with which he usually approached such tasks had lost its spark, torn between the task at hand and the small kunoichi battling for her life in the hospital. He was constantly on edge, uncertain if that day or that hour would be the instance in which he'd get the call, notifying him of the end. Her cerebral activity had been decreasing, day by day. Nurses warned that it wouldn't be long.

So, Sasuke took it upon himself to keep watch. He'd get up, head straight to the Uchiha training grounds, work himself until he could hardly stand, then turn it around to arrive at the hospital just as they were opening for visitors in the morning. He had commandeered a chair in the corner of the room—it'd been a rickety office chair at first, then the nurses replaced it with a faux leather recliner for reasons he still didn't understand—from which he sat for the rest of the day. Sometimes the nurses would let him stay past closing, too. He could feel their pitied looks whenever they'd enter the room to fiddle with Sakura's machinery. Wondering to themselves why he bothered. What stake he had in her life. Why he cared.

She underwent three additional surgeries during those first few weeks. One to replace a kidney, one to repair a lung. Another to reconstruct, for the second time, a large swath of her intestinal track. Tsunade continued to visit her once each day, sometimes to heal, other times just to check on her. Her hostility toward Sasuke seemed to lessen as the days wore on, as much due to situational exhaustion as it was to any change in her opinion of him. More than once, she'd brought in an extra cup of coffee after long nights in surgery or the ICU, leaving it on the side table for him without a word. They never exchanged more than a few pleasantries beyond that, but a mutual understanding was growing between them.

Naruto visited often, too. He'd barge in with high-spirits, sometimes with Hinata in tow, and he'd greet Sasuke and sidle up to Sakura with a bounce in his step as if the room were his favorite bar, and not a glum hospital cubicle. Each time, the veil of positivity would ebb after a time spent at her bedside. His face would fall as he stood at her side, his gurgle of optimistic clichés quietening. After that, he would engage Sasuke with what small talk he could muster, trying to pull silver linings from fissures where there were none, and then he'd trudge home.

* * *

The blonde-haired Ino girl would swing by every other day or so, too, a new bouquet of flowers always in her arms. She seemed unsure of Sasuke's presence at first, glaring at him over her arrangements as she fluffed them up on the windowsill, before moving to be closer to her friend. He'd usually take that as an opportunity to leave them be, to get some air and grab something to eat. As the days went on, however, she grew used to him. She began to share little tidbits about Sakura, memories and thoughts that bubbled to the surface that she just needed to tell someone. Sometimes she'd cry, too. She'd drape herself over the bed, burying her face in her hands before trying to hide her tears by babbling on about whatever flowers she'd brought that day.

Sasuke never really knew what to say, so he remained quiet. He'd sit and listen to her shaky voice. He'd push a box of tissues into her unsuspecting hands when deemed necessary, but beyond that, he'd let her grieve.

"What will you do, Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked one day. She was perched at Sakura's bedside, brushing her rosette locks with an ivory comb. Her fingers moved delicately, as if afraid to wake her. Sasuke's gaze lifted from Sakura to the blonde kunoichi, eying her with a lifted brow. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, staining the sheets in big plops.

"All this… it's just made me think about h-how I don't have a back-up. There's no one else like her," she continued, her voice cracking until it was all just a squeak. She set her comb down quietly, gathering her hands in her lap as her eyes lowered. "She's my best friend… My only…. I-I mean, who will do my hair at my wedding? Who else will be my maid of honor"

Sasuke tensed as Ino's voice. She sucked in a breath, wiping her face hazardously on her sleeves.

"God, I sound so selfish," she muttered, poking at the corners of her eyes with her sleeve so as not to disturb her make-up. "Sorry. I just thought you'd… get it."

"Why?" he asked quietly. He didn't understand how he had anything to do with doing someone's hair at a wedding. Ino sniffed, blinking at him critically. He could see frustration leaking into her eyes as her gaze met his.

"Why did I think you'd get it?" she clarified. He nodded stiffly. She placed a hand on her hip as she stood and paced toward the window, rubbing her forehead with the other.

"Isn't it obvious?" she mused. He tilted his head at the mischief glinting in her voice. "You're hopelessly in love with her, aren't you?"

His whole body stiffened, eyes widening as she turned toward him. The smallest of smirks flickered across her lips, knowing full well what she'd done. She dropped her gaze to her finger nails, picking at the polish absently before crossing the room toward the door.

"There's no replacing her," she murmured as she reached the door, looking back at him through her bangs before moving swiftly into the hallway.

Sasuke leaned over his knees, bracing himself as he stared at the tiles around his feet. Nausea crept into his throat, his head pounding.

He rose to his feet and paced toward the window, running his fingers along the sill as he took in the orange glows of evening settling over the village outside. Resentment built in his chest as he thought of how nonchalantly the girl had tossed that word at him. What the hell did she know?

Sasuke stalked back to the bedside, pausing beside her to gaze into her face. Even in the paleness of her condition, her complexion glowed. He could imagine, so clearly, her velvety green eyes blinking open, swimming with relief as her lips curved into that smile of hers. The warm one, the soft dimpled grin she reserved just for him, during those private moments, where she would laugh and her cheeks would feather with a nervous blush. Her voice as light and lyrical as the tinkling of wind chimes, her brush of her fingers against his gentle, yet intentional.

He reached out tentatively, brushing his thumb across her cheek. It slid smooth and soft against the roughness of his own skin. He felt his chest sinking with a heavy hollowness as he withdrew his hand.

Maybe it was obvious.

* * *

 **A/N**

Happy Holidays! Hope you've all had a good few weeks of food, family and friends! 3

xx Indigo


	15. Fault

**Chapter 15 - Fault**

* * *

Morning light began to swell along the upper reaches of the village, capping homes with hues of cherry blossom and dousing the hokage cliffs in orange. Sasuke's eyes flicked to his watch as his legs churned beneath him, running at full speed along the lake-side path. He could barely breathe, his heart racing against his chest so that he was beginning to see spots.

He put his head down and squeezed in a little more speed. He had less than a mile remaining.

Training had utterly destroyed him that morning. He'd pushed himself further than usual, the three-hour session shattering through his stamina in a way that he found difficult to recreate outside of battle scenarios. As a result, every muscle creaked and ached with effort, his fingers tingling and his head swimming as he pushed through the last of his reserves. There was relief in this exhaustion. A quietness in his mind and a contentment in his chest that stood in place of the roaring frustration and guilt that had so gripped him. Even when he was running so hard that his lungs could barely bring in air, he felt like he could finally breathe easy. There was freedom here.

When he passed beneath the archway to the Uchiha compound, Sasuke slowed to a jog, coughing in a few much-needed gulps of air before he reached his house. He tensed upon reaching the doorway, his eyes flickering to the side to meet the half-lidded gaze of his former teacher, who he found lounging on the porch bench.

"Kakashi," Sasuke growled as he kicked off his sandals. "What are you doing here?"

He didn't wait for a response, instead pushing past his paper door and roaming into the kitchen. He had a routine to get to, with or without this new obstacle. So, he threw off his sweat-drenched t-shirt into the awaiting laundry basket, then zeroed in on the fridge, rummaging around its contents for something to eat.

"I thought I'd drop in and say hello," Kakashi mused as he joined him in the kitchen, balancing on one of the bar stools with a long exhale. He drummed his fingers against the counter and let his eyes wander lazily about the room.

"At five AM," Sasuke intoned as he shot a glare over his shoulder. He chewed on an apple and made his way to the coffee machine.

"I'll take a cup," Kakashi requested cheerfully. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but poured the grounds in for two. While it brewed, he scooped protein powder into a cup with water, and began to stir it with a spoon. His mismatch gaze spun with its contents. The clumpy, brown mixture almost gleamed red in a certain light—

"How're you holding up, kid?" came his teacher's voice. Sasuke pulled himself from his thoughts and shot his former teacher another look. His dark eyes narrowed as he carefully replaced the drink onto the counter.

"I don't need you to check up on me, Kakashi," he muttered through clenched teeth. He slid a cup of coffee across the counter at his old teacher and took a long swig from his own mug. It burned his tongue, churning strong and acidic as it slid down his throat. Just how he liked it. A shock to the system.

"That may be true," the silver-haired nin mused as he glanced skeptically into his own mug. "But it won't keep me from trying." He took a tentative sip of the drink and regarded his student over the top of the mug with a sparkle of amusement.

"I'm fine," Sasuke lamented with a sigh, cracking his knuckles as he leaned against the counter. His eyes swiveled away, watching as the first light of morning doused the yard in lavender. The hospital would open soon.

"And your recovery? Chakra and injuries all healed up?" Kakashi continued.

"Is this a personal visit or hokage business?" Sasuke snarled, his irritation suddenly rising. He guzzled back the remains of his breakfast drink and rinsed out the glass with a few rushed motions in the sink.

"Both?" Kakashi offered, his tone level. Sasuke couldn't help but to feel it calculatingly so.

"Right," Sasuke growled, swirling his coffee around. "Everything's normal. I'm back to training at full capacity. So you can stop checking in on me."

At that moment, his arms weighed heavy from hours spent hurling weapons and chakra at his own shadow clones. What he really wanted to do was to shower and be alone. He hadn't slept enough to garner the patience necessary for this.

"No abnormalities?" Kakashi asked, like he were reading from a list. His eye drooped as if he might doze off. Sasuke shook his head.

"Any luck finding out how you were able to teleport here?"

Sasuke shook his head again. "Not for lack of trying," he answered dryly. Which was true—he'd spent a fair amount of his training over the last few weeks trying to portal his way from one place to another, without switching dimensions. It only worked across short distances, when he swapped places with something else, which wasn't anything new.

"And Sakura. My sources tell me you still visit her daily. Any progress?"

Sasuke's shoulders tensed before he could stop them. A flicker of bewilderment passed across his features before he quickly hardened his expression, obsidian eyes glinting.

"No," he answered finally. Kakashi's eye fell to his now empty cup, his shoulders slouching slightly as he moved to stand.

"Hm. She'll pull through, Sasuke," the hokage said finally, offering the smallest of smiles through his mask. Then his voice suddenly lowered, taking on a much more official tone.

"Before I leave, I should tell you. What I really came here for was to offer you a mission, at the request of the counsel. The rescued hostages from the Land of Waves are to be escorted back to their homes next week and, given your connection to the case and familiarity with the area, you are an ideal candidate," he said. He paused for a moment, his gaze flickering around the kitchen. "You don't have to accept, but take a few days to think on it."

Here Kakashi paused, glancing back at Sasuke with a sincere gleam.

"The other thing I'd like to say is that, although it's under… dire and unfortunate circumstances, seeing how you've… protected Sakura, and risen to this particular challenge, has made this old man very proud. It wasn't very long ago that I thought it wouldn't have been possible… and for that, I am very grateful."

Kakashi padded toward the door, scratching the back of his neck as he kicked on his sandals. As he stepped onto the porch, he tossed a glance over one shoulder.

"So don't ruin it. No more overtraining and undersleeping. Got it, Sasuke?"

He tipped his chin and disappeared into the front yard, leaving his former student to stare after him in shock.

* * *

Sasuke yanked his hood over his head as he made his way through the village. Although his chakra was already veiled, he had no interest in running into anyone on his way across town. A pit had opened up in his stomach during Kakashi's pseudo-speech, and he needed to sort it out without distractions.

He had spent so much of his adult life alone, without anyone to think of or report to, that he was unused to the sensation of being watched. Even though if came from a good place, the oversight made his stomach churn. He didn't want the concern or the worry or the judgement placed on him. He didn't need anyone to make sure he stayed the course. He didn't need someone to tell him what was or wasn't his fault.

He exhaled a shaky breath, mismatched eyes trained on his feet. One after another across the dirt road.

The mission troubled him most of all. Sasuke's instinctual reaction was to decline. He was needed here, in Konoha. A team of genin would be more than adequate to escort the former hostages.

But he felt a fiery pull toward the town of Kyreen, and its neighboring villages. He needed to go there, to see what had happened. Maybe to make reparations, or to at least seek closure.

He couldn't shake the suspicion that there was something more going on there, too. That there had been more to the plot than just the two villainous shinobi. There _had_ to be more, and his whole psyche ached to find out.

Sasuke felt the unmistakable prickle of someone watching him, and he flickered a glance up to see three Leaf shinobi staring through the window of the nearest storefront. He recognized each of them—Lee, the strange taijutsu specialist with an affinity for clichés, TenTen, the weapons master, and Kiba, the one who smelled like dog.

Lee was waving emphatically, a stupid smile spread from ear to ear. TenTen was looking at him out of the corner of her narrowed eyes with cold distrust, although she quickly looked away when his mismatched glance rose to meet hers. Kiba, on the other hand, glared at him with full, unbridled malice.

Sasuke put his head down and kept walking. He'd be at the hospital soon.

* * *

Visitors filtered through Sakura's room, as they had each day since her arrival. Some Sasuke recognized—like fellow members of the Rookie Nine, or teachers from the Academy—and others he didn't. Most would betray a certain amount of confusion upon seeing him in the room, others even going as far as to show distrust, before continuing with paying their respects to the comatose medic.

"You seem surprised, Uchiha," commented Tsunade as she strode into the room that afternoon. Sasuke flickered a glance up from the scroll he had unfurled across his lap, observing her as she approached the bed, her back to him. Each of the women's hands glowed with cerulean chakra, and she pressed one to Sakura's forehead, the other to her abdomen.

When he didn't respond to her words, she glanced over her shoulder, her pigtails twisting as her amber eyes looked him up and down. He cocked his head slightly, brow furrowing. The blonde medic smirked at him, rolling her eyes before turning back to her student.

"Surprised by what?" Sasuke answered finally, rolling up the scroll and tucking it into his pocket as he crossed the room to stand at the foot of the bed beside her. He felt her eying him as his gaze dropped to Sakura. He tried not to wince as he took in her skeletal figure, shrinking away against the sheets.

"All of the visitors," Tsunade answered lightly. "Each time that door opens, you jump like you'd thought you'd seen the last of them."

Sasuke grit his teeth. He supposed that was true. Shinobi and civilians of all shapes and sizes filtered through that door, with no signs of slowing. He was beginning to wonder where they all came from, or what relation they had to the rosette kunoichi. Although he didn't _jump_ at their entrances _,_ it confused him.

"Let me make something very clear, Uchiha," began Tsunade, her voice stern as she turned to face him fully. As she continued, she punctuated each word with an emphatic jab of her pointer finger toward the door: "This girl is one of the most _skilled_ and _renowned_ medics that this village has ever _seen_. The people she's saved, the lives that she's touched… there are thousands. And as word spreads of her condition, they will come. Each and every one of them. Mark my _fucking_ words."

Her breath hitched at the end. Sasuke's eyes flickered up to watch as the blonde woman carefully removed her hands from the girl laying between them and took a step away from the bedside. Her shoulders trembled as she waved a hand in front of her face to hide her reddening eyes. She pinched the bridge of her nose, and he dropped his gaze quickly, chewing on the inside of his lip as he looked at Sakura.

"Uchiha."

He glanced up again at his name again, regarding the Sannin out of the corner of his eye as she held something out toward him. He blinked. It was a flask. He cocked a brow, obsidians narrowing.

"Oh, hell. It's not poisoned," muttered Tsunade as she brought it to her lips, taking a great swig before holding it toward him again. "Drink up."

He shook his head, but took it from her anyway. The metal was icy cold as he brought it to his lips. The whisky burned his throat as it went down. He took a long gulp, then carefully twisted the cap shut before passing it back. She took a few more long drags herself before replacing it in her pocket, then turned toward the door.

"Uchiha," she called as she reached the door. He glanced up, watching her as she braced herself against the doorway, swaying slightly. "I don't like you."

He frowned. She pointed a finger straight at him, waving it a bit before continuing:

"But don't blame yourself for this mess. It's how she is. She'd jump in front of anything, if it meant saving a life. Could be for a bloody cat, for all the good it would do. And there isn't a thing you or I, or anyone else, could do to change that."

Sasuke shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then nodded. Satisfied, Tsunade turned on her heel and left the room.

* * *

Sasuke launched himself into a seated position in his bed as the sound of loud knocking tore him from his sleep. He snapped his head to the side, aware of a large chakra signature perched outside the window to his right. Another furious set of knocking, and Sasuke yanked the blinds open to find the blonde hokage-to-be balanced on the shingles outside.

Sasuke glared at him through the glass. "The fuck do you want, Naruto?"

"Teme!" yelled his friend, his voice distorted through the glass. "I've been banging on your door for an hour. Let me in—it's important."

Sasuke promptly lowered the blinds again. He listened as Naruto stammered and yelled from outside, but chose to ignore it as he made his way downstairs. When he slid open the front door, the blonde was waiting there, arms crossed and a deep, scathing frown on his face.

"Do you know what time it is, Sasuke?" he shouted as he blew through the door and past his friend, waltzing into the living room as if he owned the place.

"No," he answered, eyes flicking toward the kitchen appliances. _1:43pm._

"W-were you actually sleeping?" Naruto stammered as he threw open the fridge and helped himself to a can of bubbly water. Sasuke rolled his eyes as he settled onto one of the bar stools and leaned against the counter. It was his scheduled rest day from training. Plus, Tsunade had told him that Sakura's family would be visiting their daughter at some point in the day, and it would be best to give them some alone time.

Her parents had been out on vacation when their daughter had been brought in. Somewhere warm, with beaches, very far away from the village. They'd headed home the moment they'd received news, but they had only just arrived that morning.

"Why do you care?" Sasuke shot back.

"We were supposed to get lunch with Kakashi-sensei, for starters."

"God forbid I miss that," he scoffed. "If that's the only 'important' news you have to share, Naruto, you can show yourself out."

Naruto blinked in surprise, as if remembering his train of thought, then shook his head quickly. "Hell, Sasuke. That's not what I came to say." He took a long swig of his soda before replacing it on the counter with a heavy hand. "Tsunade's been trying to get in touch with you all morning. She says there's an update at the hospital."

Before he could finish the sentence, Sasuke was already kicking on his sandals by the door and shouldering a cloak as he flitted into the brisk afternoon air, Naruto hot on his heels.

* * *

The teammates practically ran up the stairwell to the fourth floor, leaping two at a time with Sasuke leading the way until Naruto elbowed him out of the way and flung open the hallway door. Sasuke slipped past him, accelerating past familiar doorways as he extended his chakra ahead of him, aware of a number of signatures—a few he didn't recognize—clustered around Sakura's small emerald aura.

He nearly tripped over himself in surprise, for her comatose chakra had been replaced by erratic movements, quivering about her location in frantic bursts.

Sasuke rounded a corner and skidded to a halt just outside her door. As he reached for the handle, the whole thing swung out toward him, and he had to duck out of the way, sliding back as a thin blonde woman with bright green eyes revealed herself in the doorway. Sasuke recognized her immediately as Sakura's mother, Haruno Mebuki.

Her age had crept into the edges of her complexion, crinkling at the corners of her eyes and graying along the roots of her cropped hair. She wore a long white kimono with a delicate floral pattern along the hems, similar to the coat she used to wear when dropping off her daughter at the Academy, in the early days.

Mebuki's eyes widened as she blinked away her surprise at the boys' presence, her eyes lingering on Sasuke before flicking to Naruto, standing just down the hall, as frozen as his dark-haired counterpart. Only then did she look back to Sasuke, her green eyes narrowing with a sudden, vindictive fury. He slid another step back as she puffed up her chest, squaring up a hand on her hip. She stabbed her other pointer finger into the air at Sasuke.

" _You!_ " she hissed. Her pale cheeks were puffy and red from the repetitive tracks of tears, and deep violet half circles lined her eyes as she stamped a foot against the linoleum. "How _dare_ you come here!"

Sasuke felt his hands and mind go numb, her words hitting him like shards of ice as he backed further into the hallway. She took his retreat in stride, stepping into the hallway after him. He was aware of Tsunade and a man with pale rose hair wavering in the doorway behind her, but he dared not peel his eyes away from the woman advancing toward him.

" _You_ did this to her!" Mebuki shrieked, her voice cracking. "How _dare_ you drag my daughter into your chaos. _You_ and that monstrous clan of yours bring nothing but death and devastation wherever you go. And as if it weren't enough to break her heart and _ruin_ her time and time again, you've _killed_ her. You've killed her! You let her _die_ and did _nothing_ to stop it. This is all on _your_ hands!"

Her whole body shook with hysteria as she shrunk back against the wall, gripping the door frame with her frail hands as her husband moved to hold her steady.

"Mebuki…." He whispered. She shook her head, pulling her arms from his grasp as she fixed her glare on Sasuke once more, pouring all of the hate and contempt she could into her stare as he met her gaze.

"Stay the hell away from my daughter," she snarled. "Get the hell out of here. You're not welcome here, or anywhere near her, ever again."

As if the words had drained the last of her strength, the mother turned back toward her husband, leaning into his shoulder as the man held her tightly.

"Dear…" he murmured, his eyes flicking up to Sasuke nervously, then around to Naruto.

But Sasuke's eyes had flickered toward a flutter of movement just past his shoulder, in the hospital room behind him. He didn't see the look of disdain that Mebuki shot at him, or the confusion flicker across her husband's brow as Sasuke took an instinctive step forward. He didn't see Naruto swear at him and stumble forward to stop him, or Tsunade spinning on her heels in the hospital room to approach the bedside. Everything slowed and stopped, except for her.

Because within the nest of pillows and rosette coils, two large emerald eyes were blinking up at him. Gleaming with recognition. And as Mebuki moved to slam the door in front of him, hurling warnings to him over her husband's shoulder, all he could do stare at the final glimpse of the little kunoichi and the tiny, tentative turn of her lips as she met his gaze, alive.

* * *

A/N

Happy New Year! Hope you enjoy this sneaky-quick update. (:

xoxo

Indigo


End file.
